This presentation demonstrates original software tools, created by the presenter, that are designed to improve teacher effectiveness, student participation, and student achievement. Participants will examine instructional software for finite mathematics. Activities will include the creation of lecture notes, exercise sets with prescribed levels of detail, and classroom worksheets.
The presenter, Mr. Sever, will demonstrate his original web-based software that is designed to improve teacher preparation and student achievement in Finite Math. While there are many large-scale (publisher based) instructional software programs that serve to aid professors in the preparation for the classroom, the presenter demonstrates that meaningful software development can take place on the small scale.
Teaching and learning are central activities of education; they involve the professor, the learner, the content, the strategies, and the delivery of instruction. Certainly, a necessary and critically important component of teaching is preparation. The particular problem that Mr. Sever is attempting to address is the development of instructional tools for faculty use in preparation for teaching mathematics. It takes a significant amount of time to develop quality lectures for the mathematics classroom. In some courses, due to the nature of the content and the type of problems to be solved, it takes more time to prepare. This is true in the context of developing problems/exercises for use in lectures and, of course, for those used in student assessment.
Mr. Sever will demonstrate his original software which is designed to assist professors in preparation for teaching Finite Math and Linear Algebra (and to a lesser extent College Algebra). During the presentation, the software will be used to create, analyze, and select appropriate problems for the Finite Mathematics classroom. Using the software as an analytical tool, participants will learn how to create and select problems with varying levels of difficulty and with prescribed characteristics for Linear Programming (with emphasis on graphical solutions).
The participants will interact with the software, through the presenter, to create, analyze, and select Finite Math problems. Participants will use the software as an analytical feedback tool.
Audience participation with presenters and software will involve:
1. Problem creation
2. Problem/Solution analysis
If the results are not desirable, then participants will alter parameters and rerun the analysis.
Participants will analyze software output to determine whether solution complexity matches pedagogical intent.
Emphasis will center on linear systems and linear programming problems using graphical and simplex methods. The software will be used to create, analyze, and select appropriate problems for the classroom.