Idea Galaxy

Adventures in Junior High and Mathematics

discovery lab

Teaching Linear versus Nonlinear Functions through Discovery

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A few years ago when I was co-teaching with one of my colleagues I wanted to try out the concept of discovery learning. I saw something about it in the resources we were using. So, I thought we could give it a try.

We were going to be teaching the difference between linear and nonlinear functions. It seems like a really simple concept. You just look at the graph and if it’s a straight line, then it’s a linear function. And if it’s not a straight line, then it’s a nonlinear function. But, as all teachers know, nothing is that simple. You don’t just tell kids stuff and they remember it. You can’t just talk about something for 10 minutes and then kids remember forever. If it were that simple, then we really wouldn’t need teachers. [Read more…] about Teaching Linear versus Nonlinear Functions through Discovery

Teaching Square Roots Through Discovery

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Discovery Learning with Square Roots

A few years ago I learned about the idea of discovery learning. It was revolutionary to me at the time. Math was taught to me in the most traditional ways for most of my life and I taught it that same way. You know- the teacher gives notes and the students take notes. Then, after seeing a few examples, the students do work and we go over the work together. This framework has been so ingrained in my that it was and still is to some degree hard to let students do the work of discovering. [Read more…] about Teaching Square Roots Through Discovery

Teaching Adding Integers through Discovery

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Working with positive and negative integers is something that can throw students off at first. One of my favorite ways to introduce new topics is with a discovery lab. Why? Well, these activities help students face their misconceptions head on. Discovery labs are an ideal way to start a new topic because it helps students build their own conceptual model right from the get-go. Then, when you start the teaching and modeling, they have a place in their brain to put that new information. Today I’ll share with you how my students get introduced to adding positive and negative integers through a discovery lab approach. [Read more…] about Teaching Adding Integers through Discovery

Teaching Absolute Value Through Discovery

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In recent years, mean absolute deviation and variability concepts have been added to 7th grade math. It seems like a huge jump from their current understanding to these concepts, but we as teachers always figure out ways to make the content accessible to students. The first time I taught mean absolute deviation I just told the kids that absolute value was the distance a number is from zero. It seems like a simple concept and in my rush to get to the meat of the topic, I left it at that. Well, needless to say, the majority of my students don’t retain information just because I say it a couple of times. I know, I know, teaching lesson learned (again!). Let me share with you how teaching absolute value through discovery made teaching the whole topic of mean absolute deviation and absolute value in general so much easier.

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Exploring Compound Probability Through Discovery

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What are the chances your students will forget what they learn about probability? It’s an uncomfortable truth that they often forget things that they’ve studied in class. But, they’re much more likely to forget if they don’t build schema and connections with this concept. So, I’m excited to share with you my favorite way to do just that. Discovery labs give you one way that help your students to build background and ultimately remember what they learn about compound probability (wanna read more how I got started with discovery labs? Read that story here.)

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