Entrance Slip Sept. 23rd

 One of the striking questions for me asked by Kallis is "what if we started to make some of the things we need for ourselves a social and cultural norm?". I think this is an incredibly powerful concept from an environmental perspective because it shifts us away from consumerism and into a mindset of recycling, upcycling, making use of what we have, and being thoughtful about what we need. Furthermore, I think this concept connects deeply with learning because it challenges us to produce things for ourselves and in doing so, solve the problems that might otherwise be fixed by someone else's product because it is convenient. This concept of producing what we need for ourselves helps us to become lifelong learners as well because to make a thing often requires some skill or other that we might not have developed otherwise. While we are making a conscious effort to help the environment, we are also learning and building upon are knowledge base to become more self-sustaining. This also provides an opportunity to connect with Indigenous ways of knowing and being in a more meaningful way by participating in those practices.

Of the three videos, I am very interested to try the Turkish string bag technique because it creates a very interesting geometrical 'web' pattern and I am wondering how that design could be altered. What other kinds of designs or patters could you imprint into the bag as you weave it? The 7-string braid video was also interesting because the pattern reminded me of Celtic designs I have seen before.

Sept. 16 Make-Up Assignment Part. 1

Reflection: Learning by Drawing in Stem

The "constructive use" idea of using drawing as a means of inventing a novel form of visualization is a really good idea for a math classroom because of the way it allows students to connect with the topic they are learning, but also possibly find understanding for themselves and a way of visualization that could benefit their classmates as well. Further to this point is the "interactive use" of drawing that the authors explore. Drawings can be used to exchange ideas, construct arguments or even tell stories, all of which are tools that could be used in a math classroom to enhance learning and create a sense of ownership among students of the knowledge they are exploring.

I would use drawing in my math classroom as a means of creating visualizations (novel or not) so that students can discover more about the topic and have a better understanding of it. Drawings take time, especially drawings that are meant to be mathematical in nature. If you are trying to be accurate to a pattern, function, or set of data, care must be taken to ensure correctness. This helps students by giving them time to process what they learning and also to help each other to figure out this different kind of "problem".

Natural and Unnatural Drawings

Drawing Reflection

Drawing natural objects and comparing them to natural objects is an interesting process because of the differences in structure, form and purpose. Straight lines and right angles typify these characteristics in human made objects because it makes manufacturing easier, they are built for one purpose, and it is easier to arrange or organize objects of a regular and confined shape. For instance, a box or rectangular container is built to hold things, the construction of such a box can be done by machine because a rectangular prism is a relatively simple object, and the arrangement of multiple boxes is easy because they can be conveniently placed next to each other or stacked. Right angles and straight lines also exist in nature in places like certain rock formations, the path that light travels is always a straight line, certain plants grow in very straight lines (bamboo) and will sometimes have branches that occur at right angles by chance because of optimization towards resources. 

Fractal geometry: a pattern that can be defined by some process or mathematical relation which identify subsequent iterations of the pattern.

Exit Slip Sept. 9

I like what Dr. Mccourt said about not fighting with students and instead using what they disagreed with or were fighting against as a way of engaging with them. He had to learn the American culture and specifically the teenage culture of the time which probably worked to his advantage because it would have offered him a better insight into their worlds. His success seems to be largely based on his adaptability and ability to work with students, not against them creating a more enjoyable and engaging learning environment. Dr. Mccourt had a long and very successful career so he must have also developed effective assessment methods. What would such celebrated teacher say his most effective tool was? Being an English teacher, I would also like to ask him about his take on mathematics education: how would someone like Dr. Mccourt lesson plan, teach, and assess mathematics from the perspective of an English teacher? Dr. Mccourt's way of teaching informs my own because I also strive to work with students in a way that engages their energies, so his methods of teaching are particularly interesting to me.

Hello world

 First test blog post