Thanks to Sarah for hosting!
Present: Sarah Kupski, Sarah Denney, Chris Armour
(Ely), Deborah Gordon (Longsands), Lisa Grant, Robyn Afford, Ciera Tuohy
(Neale-Wade), Simon Palmer (KEVI, Suffolk), Rachel Clarke (Cottenham), Mark
Dawes (Comberton)
Notes by Mark Dawes
Focus:
The broad focus of the meeting was Transformations
Sarah kicked the
meeting off by showing us the NRICH Transformation Game: http://nrich.maths.org/5457
We discussed how this might be used in the classroom. Sarah copies the sheets for pupils and they
work in pairs using the cards, often with a selection of cards given out to
each pupil. She suggested that pupils
could work collaboratively to create the biggest possible score with, say, 10
cards. It seemed to be useful to have a
copy of the sheet on the IWB and then to have a partially transparent triangle on
there (so the scores are still visible) that is then cloned and
manipulated. Extra copies of the
triangle at the side, in different sizes and orientations, might well make it
easier for pupils to demonstrate what they have done. On Activ a toolbar to do reflections, rotations,
etc, could be set up. In addition it
could be good to have a large version on the table for pupils to manipulate
(and to do the reflections and rotations with).
Next time (in a subsequent term?) the numbers could be changed.
Deborah asked
about the toolbar of icons, which don’t appear on her screen. Sarah’s computer has version 11 of the SMART
software and this has some useful new features (such as the paint pot),
although the ‘Maths Tools’ were felt by those present to be too expensive to be
justifiable.
Lisa shared a
number of transformation files.
Enlargement Draw the enlarged version using individual lines, group
them, and then move them into position.
Or use the construction lines.
This can mimic what the pupils do on paper. Then check that it is similar to the original
version by dragging the corner.
Reflection Make a ‘Reflection Bug’ (with thanks to Sam for the idea!)
on screen and also using tracing paper.
Complete partially drawn reflections.
Lisa also uses
some of the features of SMART such as the pairs game, dragging words in and out
to complete sentences and the animation tools to hide and reveal answers. Lisa has put together a file to share some of
these.
Simon
demonstrated how the pairs game can be created in Activ using layers (so the ‘back’
of the card is moved to the bottom layer when clicked, and then the picture on
the ‘front’ of the card is moved to the back when it is clicked). This is more awkward to set up, but works.
Mark showed the
Reflection Game he uses with low-attaining Yr 8 pupils, where they click on the
paint-pot and complete the reflective symmetry.
For pupils who cannot easily ‘see’ a diagonal line of symmetry you can
take a picture of the diagram with the camera tool and then rotate it to make
the line run vertically. We discussed
that some pupils can feel ‘on-the-spot’ when called up to the board and ways of
avoiding putting them under unwanted pressure.
We all then
discussed how we could use features of the board to help with TransformingGraphs.
On SMART you can make the background of an image transparent
by using “Set picture transparency”.
This allows a curve to be moved up and down on top of the axes that have
been set up. We grouped the graph of
y=f(x)+2 to a button. Pupils could be
shown y=f(x), could be asked to draw their prediction for y=f(x)+2 and could
then click to reveal the correct version.
We liked this and decided it could be used for other transformations
too.
Lisa showed us
the NGfL Cymru enlargement webpage.
Next year
we want to continue to meet each term and to have a tighter focus for meetings
(as this year). Neale-Wade and
Longsands have both offered to host (but not the first meeting of the year).
