AUTOGRAPH 3: inspiring more advanced students (16-19) with dynamic software

Abstract

This will be a chance to experience classroom activities using the dynamic, selectable objects in Autograph. This hands-on workshop will offer lesson plans covering a wide variety of topics for ages 16-19 (using Autograph's “Advanced” of operation).

Teachers can be more adventurous when using ICT with the more advanced students, for whom visualisation can play a key role in securing their understanding of complicated concepts.

There will be practice in creating and selecting objects, setting up animations, using the ‘slow plot’ feature and the various zoom controls.

Delegates will be able to explore the use of Autograph with an Interactive Whiteboard or with a Tablet laptop, using the built-in scribble and rub-out tools and the on-screen keyboard (with the special Arial for Autograph font of everyday mathematical symbols).

Delegates will be able to test whether they believe that the use of software such as Autograph can increase the student’s understanding of mathematics, and whether such understanding is longer lasting as a result of exposure to dynamic images. Autograph’s simulations and animations will be used to bring key introductory concepts to life.

Topics will be chosen from calculus, numerical methods, differential equations, advanced trigonometry, and also graphs, lines, vectors and transformations in both 2D and 3D.

3D topics will also include planes, surfaces, skew lines, cross products, etc.

Applications in probability and statistics will also be explored dynamically, including data handling for practical coursework tasks, and the tricky concept of the Central Limit Theorem. There are a range of probability distributions to explore, and these can be used to model real data, and to set up hypothesis tests.

Autograph resources, including a growing number of ‘Flash’ Turbo-Demo tutorials, can be found on: http://www.autograph-maths.com