{"id":298,"date":"2019-11-08T18:30:03","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T18:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelmoore\/?p=298"},"modified":"2019-11-08T18:38:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T18:38:23","slug":"students-create-their-own-math-problems-you-betcha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/michaelmoore\/2019\/11\/08\/students-create-their-own-math-problems-you-betcha\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Create Their Own Math Problems? You Betcha!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I\u2019m trying something new with this post. I\u2019m going to try to keep this short and sweet. Get in and out quick. Get right to the point. No more long-winded, drawn out, over explained blog posts. (I\u2019m not off to a good start am I?)<\/em><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been trying something in my calculus class lately. It involves VNPS. This stands for “Vertical Non-Permanent Surface” and the goal is to get students up on their feet working working on a surface that easily erases, which means they don\u2019t have to be afraid to make mistakes (see image below). I’ve had students do VNPS individually sometimes and in groups other times. When I use groups I have the students draw cards to determine their partners. I do this based on the recommendations of Peter Liljedahl<\/a> in order to ensure fairness, that students work with others they wouldn’t normally choose to work with, and mainly to avoid the constant complaints \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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VNPS is nothing new. Many math teachers all over the world are using it in their classrooms. So how have I been using it specifically?<\/strong> (FINALLY THIS GUY GETS TO THE POINT! So much for short and sweet!)<\/em><\/span> I’ve been giving my students the skeleton of problem and then I have them choose their own values for the constants and exponents I’ve indicated. The image below is an example of this.<\/p>\n

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This way each student\/group has their own unique problem, whose answer will most likely not be “nice”. Interestingly enough, the feedback from my students has been that they like having to work through problems with “not nice” answers, unlike the problems in their textbooks.<\/p>\n

So how do I check their answers?<\/strong> I’m so glad you asked. Desmos<\/a> of course! I type in the equation I gave the students with the constants a<\/em>, b<\/em>, c<\/em>, etc. and Desmos allows me to create sliders for these constants (careful not to use certain letters that already have pre-programmed values like e<\/em> and i<\/em>). When a student wants their answer checked, I simply input their a<\/em>, b<\/em>, c<\/em>, etc. values and Desmos tells me the answer immediately (see image below). Here is the Desmos graph I used<\/a> if you’d like to play with the sliders.<\/p>\n

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Here are a few shots of what my students came up with.<\/p>\n

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Another example of when I used this was during a product rule lesson. See image below.<\/p>\n

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I realize these are 2 calculus examples but this can work in any math class. Off the top of my head…<\/p>\n