Workshop Overview
From Prep08Wiki
This online workshop examines topics in geometry and the use of art as a motivating tool. The focus of the workshop will be how to develop in class exploration, how to use inquiry based learning in the classroom, and how to create an interdisciplinary course for freshmen. Materials are online in the form of a Wikibook, and this resource includes theory, classroom explorations, exercises and projects.
Participants will work through explorations and discuss how they can be useful in helping students understand geometry. The objective will be to provide participants with the resources, teaching materials and knowledge for teaching an inquiry based course that incorporates interdisciplinary elements. The method of using interactive worksheets, projects and fieldtrips to help students reach a deeper understanding of mathematics and its applications to other disciplines is transferable to other courses in mathematics. Ways of adapting this approach to other courses will be discussed.
Participants completing the workshop will
- obtain teaching materials for a course in geometry that uses inquiry based learning in the classroom;
- learn how to develop their own explorations and teaching materials for geometry;
- become familiar with Wikimedia as a tool for creating online materials
- become a part of a network of other professors using interactive methods and an interdisciplinary approach to mathematics.
The workshop will meet live online for three hours each day, broken into two one and a half hour sessions. Prior to attending the workshop, the participants will be expected to familiarize themselves with the Math and the Art of M.C. Escher wikibook. During the workshop, specific geometry explorations will be examined and discussed. Participants will work through these explorations and discuss how they can be useful in helping students comprehend concepts from geometry. By the end of the week, groups of participants will develop and present explorations or other materials of their own interest related to geometry. An electronic network will be set up for the participants that will provide a discussion forum.
