Math 371 Technology for STEM Educators

When it comes to solving a math problem, there are several methods a student can implement that will yield the correct answer. Sometimes, while helping friends with their math problems, I like to wait until they finish the problem to confirm their answer matches mine. This approach gives allowance to the fact that we learned two different methods for solving that sort of problem. However, because I grasp the general principle that they are applying, I can often double-check their work even if the specific notation or order of steps is different than what I utilized. I have noticed that my understanding of general principles is not shared by all math students. This makes me question whether math teachers are teaching methods or principles to their students in the classroom. Many students struggle to solve a problem unless they are using the specific method they learned in the past because they do not understand the underlying principle behind the method. “As to methods, there may be...

Earlier this week I had the privilege of attending the South Dakota STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Ed ucation conference in Huron, SD. I attended the conference with an open mi ndset of learning a lot of new things, however, one session , “Teaching Math as a Languag e , ” left me questionin g .   The way the session opened was by comparing a math classroom to a language classroom. When he played the video of the language classroom, we were all a bit confused , as we had no idea what was going on . Later in the session, he presented an equation in slope form with a range of x -values.   He then asked for volunteers to read the equation aloud . T wo volunteers read the equati on differently. At this point, I was confused about why or how they could read the equation differently.   As a math education major, I adapted to the speech of math early on in life, but just like language class es , so me people cannot adapt or process the la...

With Apple’s release of the Apple Vision Pro, virtual reality is becoming more prevalent daily.  With the seamless cross of the real and the virtual, the applications are only limited to one's imagination. This led me to research different ways virtual reality technology can be used in the classroom. One common use for virtual reality in the classroom is a tour of a virtual museum.  Instead of having to plan, schedule, and attend a field trip to a museum students can now visit any museum available in VR.  This comes with some drawbacks though as some may think that students wouldn’t be getting the full experience of visiting a museum.  I couldn’t agree more.  There is a time and a place for VR tours, but you can’t beat going to a real museum in person. Another use of VR in the classroom is to allow students to experiment with science in a safe environment.  Students of any age can conduct VR simulations of physics, chemistry, and engineering, without the da...

The periodic table is a very useful tool when it comes to science classes, but when it comes to retaining all information about the 100+ different elements on the periodic table, some would find it to be quite challenging. Printing the periodic table out and customizing it to fit your needs is not the worst idea but wouldn’t it be easier to just download an app on your phone. If it is downloaded on your phone not only, can you take it everywhere you go but you don’t have to carry around a piece of paper. Trying to carry the periodic table around on paper can be just as challenging as trying to remember all the information on the table. Comparing the paper to an app would make it quite easy to figure out which one you should choose. For starters, the paper copy and the app do share some similarities. Of course, they share the fact that the table is there for you to look at always and you can customize the table to fit the class. When I talk about customizing the table, I mean writing ...