Teaching Precalculus with Scientific WorkPlace 2.5
Vlajko L. Kocic
Abstract
Starting with the Fall 1996 semester, at Xavier University of Louisiana, Scientific WorkPlace 2.5 has been used in a classroom as an ``intelligent electronic chalckboard,'' as a tool for the preparation of lectures and other course materials, and in implementation of on-line lectures and tutorials available to students. The main goals were to increase the active participation of students in the classroom, their early exposition to modern technology, and creation of an environment for the effective implementation of other teaching techniques. In order to assess the effectiveness of the use of this technology in the course, the content of the course has been the same as in other sections of Precalculus and students took the same exams.
Introduction
At Xavier University of Louisiana, Precalculus is one of the largest courses offered by the Mathematics Department. Between eight and eleven sections are offered each semester and one in the summer. This is a coordinated course, where all sections are required to cover the same material, students take common tests and final exam, and the grading policy is uniform for all sections. The textbook with mainly ``traditional'' approach has been used .
Starting with the Fall 1996 semester, in one section of Precalculus, the software Scientific WorkPlace 2.5 has been used for the development of various course materials, implementation of on-line lectures and tutorials, and in the classroom as a teaching tool. Classes were held in an electronic classroom equipped with PC computer with Windows, projection system and camera.
The main goals in this project were to increase the active participation of students in the classroom, their early exposition to the modern technology, to emphasize the multiple approaches (numerical, graphical, and symbolic) when introducing a concept, and the creation of an environment for the effective implementation of teaching techniques like active learning, cooperative learning, and other.
In order to assess the effectiveness of the use of this technology in the course, the content of the course has been the same as in other sections of Precalculus and students took same exams.
Scientific WorkPlace as a Teaching Tool
The main reasons why Scientific WorkPlace has been selected are the following:
Course Materials
The following course materials have been developed and classroom tested:
Tutorial ``Precalculus: Multimedia Lectures on Selected Topics''
The tutorial has been developed using Scientific WorkPlace 2.5. Each lecture includes a brief summary of the theory, completely solved examples, followed by the set of exercises. Many problems are designed to be solved by using the Maple component of Scientific WorkPlace 2.5. A tutorial has been installed on the computers in the Mathematics Tutoring Lab and is available to the students there. The following topics have been covered:
Set of classroom notes (handouts) for students
A complete set of skeleton handouts has been developed for students. Each handout contains a brief summary of theory, followed by examples and problems to be solved in the class. In general, each handout contains the material which can be covered during the class period and typically it is between two and six pages long. Examples and problems are not solved but only formulated with the space left for students to write the solution by themselves or to copy it from the projection screen. Examples are selected in such a way as to illustrate concepts by emphasizing the multiple approaches in problem solving (numerical, graphical, and symbolic), to stimulate critical thinking, and to connect the presented material with real-life applications.
Set of classroom notes and slides for instructors
A complete set of ``slides'' for instructor to be used in the electronic classroom has also been developed. ``Slides'' do not follow the traditional format (bullet list containing important facts illustrated with pictures, completely solved examples, etc.), but rather create the environment in which students together with instructor explore the newly introduced concepts. ``Slides'' are adjusted to fit capabilities of Scientific WorkPlace. They contain more information than handouts. Also, as in the handouts, most of the problems are only stated problems without solution. In the traditional lecture format class, when solving a problem in a classroom, the instructor may type the complete solution, explaining each step in the process, by using Scientific WorkPlace as an ``electronic chalkboard''. On the other hand, when the emphases is on active learning and when students solve the problems in groups or individually, it enables the instructor to present only the final answer and let students check their work.
Assessment and Performance on Exams
During the Fall semester students had five one-hour tests, quizzes and homework assignments. Students in this section took the \textsl{same one-hour tests and final exam at the same time } as students in other sections of Precalculus. The final grade\textsl{\ has been calculated in the same way} as in other sections of Precalculus.
Overall students' performance on exams was excellent (30\% of students received grade A, 40\% grade B, 27\% grade C, and 3\% grade F). It is important to mention that in this class none of the students dropped the course. All students who were registered at the beginning of the semester took the final exam. There are many other factors that may influence such a good performance of students and in this moment those results need to be accepted only conditionally. For example, traditionally the performance of Precalculus students in Fall semester is much better than in Spring. This needs to be examined in the longer period of time before the final conclusion is made.
At the end of semester two surveys were conducted and students evaluation. The first survey is the Electronic Classroom Evaluation. Students rated from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5\ (strongly agree) various aspect of the effectiveness of the use of electronic classroom in this course. Students prefer electronic-classroom format to the standard chalkboard format and this format enhanced their understanding of course content. Students found that slides were very easy to read (4.23). Also, the camera projection system was very effective teaching tool (4.04), in contrast to the whiteboard (3.0). Students found that the electronic classroom provides the same opportunities for class discussions as the traditional format (4.04), and they will recommend to their fellow students to take this course using electronic classroom format (4.08). They disagree that the electronic classroom format provides fewer opportunities for student-teacher interaction (2.46) and for student participation (2.23). Many comments like ``Easy to read. Some teachers handwriting is bad'', ``You can see what teacher is writing while he is writing'', ``The screen is always visible opposed to the chalkboard; you never miss any steps or notes'', clearly indicate the effectiveness of use of Scientific WorkPlace as ``electronic chalkboard'' in the classroom.
The second survey targeted the use of handouts and active learning approach in the classroom. Students found that handouts were very useful (90\%) and that the price they paid was worth (92 \%). The ``skeleton'' handouts help them to follow more closely than usually the material covered in class (92\%) and the course was more enjoyable than other mathematics courses they have taken (88\%). They definitely prefer the ``active learning'' method than the conventional ``lecture'' format (95.8\%). It is interesting to note that for most students (90\%), handouts were the main source of information in this course and the substitute for the book. Also, they shared handouts with students in other sections of Precalculus taught in the traditional way.
Further Development
On the regular basis, the developed course materials will be reviewed and revised accordingly. Currently, there is an on-going project regarding the development of the techniques for assessment of the effectiveness of the use of various teaching techniques and the technology in Precalculus. As a part of on-going research, in one section of Precalculus only handouts have been used, while teaching has been in the ``traditional chalkboard'' classroom. One of the outcomes of such a project will be comparison between the use of technology and traditional methods while using the same ``active learning'' approach.
Bibliography
D. W. Hardy and C. L. Walker, Mathematics with Scientific WorkPlace, TCI Software Research, Las Cruces, NM and Brooks/Cole Pub. Co., Pacific Grove, CA, 1995
R. Hunter and S. Bagby, Creating Documents with Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word, TCI Software Research, Las Cruces, NM and Brooks/Cole Pub. Co., Pacific Grove, CA, 1995
V. L. Kocic, MATH 1030 Precalculus, Multimedia Lectures on Selected Topics, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, 1996
R. E. Larson and R. P. Hostetler, Precalculus, 3rd rd., D. C. Heath and Co., Lexington, MA, 1993
J. Thornhill, Scientific WorkPlace for Windows, p305-311.