- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2050676
- First Name Kellie
- Last Name Evans
- Institution California State University, Northridge
- Role/Position Co-PI
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry
- Target Audience Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Managing high-need classrooms/building trust for all students
Goals
GeoGebra is a free interactive tool for teaching and learning math. Participants will learn about GeoGebra’s versatility, from a free graphing calculator that students can use in Exam Mode during assessments to a dynamic teaching companion. Participants will get ideas about how to use the software on the fly during class to illustrate graphing techniques and properties of functions and well as other math topics. They will also learn the basics of how to prepare short, interactive demonstrations ahead of time for use during class or for students to experiment with outside of class. They will learn how to find existing materials and edit or organize them for their own use.
Evidence
GeoGebra is an inclusive application that empowers teachers and students. We have been using GeoGebra to teach math at all levels for more than a decade and students consistently share that it gives them confidence to do more math and to try things, especially because they can use the software to experiment with ideas and to check their work. The following are quotes from feedback surveys: “Before this class I thought GeoGebra was only for graphing in 3 dimensions but I learned that it has so many functions, I will definitely use it in the future. It will really help with checking my answers.” “This class made me enjoy math again after having a hard time finding any happiness in my math degree. The use of GeoGebra made the class a lot less stressful.” “GeoGebra helped me tons with understanding the concepts in this class.” “GeoGebra is great and gives me ideas to create similar things in the future when I gain more experience in my field.” As another example, we worked with a math graduate student to incorporate GeoGebra activities into a Calculus I lab section. We used ideas developed to work with prospective teachers to better support and retain first semester calculus students. The graduate student was teaching for the first time and shared the following comments: “Using GeoGebra, you can have student participation because they can try out ‘What does this look like?’ ‘What does that look like?’” “I wish, when I was learning, I had it [GeoGebra] because [professors] they’d say ‘picture this … imagine that’ and when you’re first learning, it’s hard. When you get stuck, you’re just stuck. This [GeoGebra] gives a place to check [graphs and other visual mathematics] … does it look like I thought it did?”
Proposal
GeoGebra is a free interactive geometry, algebra, statistics, and higher math application that provides a platform to connect enthusiastic STEM teachers and students. In this workshop, we will share resources developed for a week-long GeoGebra Summer Institute. Participants will use the resources to explore, experiment with, and bring math to life through visualization and interactive activities. Participants will experience GeoGebra’s versatility as a free mobile app and dynamic teaching companion. An emphasis will be placed on how to use GeoGebra as a tool to leverage the interplay between mathematics and technology. This workshop will be highly interactive. Please bring a wi-fi connected laptop or tablet and a Smartphone with the free GeoGebra Calculator Suite installed.
