Category: Teacher Submitted Resources – All Access

So, what have you been doing on Summer Vacation? Well, I finished the YouTube screencast videos for Common Core Algebra II, all 107 of them, last Friday. Then, I spent the weekend and all of yesterday editing the text, with the help of my editor-in-chief Fraz Lugay.

Last night I submitted the final text for CC Algebra II. I will have the proof later on this week and hopefully we will start printing workbooks and answer key CD’s by the middle of next week.

For now, I’d like to share some things:

Common Core Algebra II.Version 1.0

CC Alg II Table of Contents with Video Hyperlinks

The first is a link to the entire Version 1.0 of the Common Core Algebra II text. The second is a link to our table of contents with hyperlinks to all of the videos.

We will eventually be putting up a unit structure very similar to Common Core Algebra I where you can access the worksheet, the homework set, and the video all in one convenient place.

On a final note, I will be making public all of the CC Algebra II videos soon on YouTube. I want to apologize to all of my YouTube subscribers because you will likely get 100 emails (or 107) about new videos being posted. We’ll see what happens.

 

 

So, I’ve been working away at finishing Common Core Algebra II. The last unit is on Statistics and a large part of it is statistical simulation, which is a very new idea not only to New York State statistics at this level, but pretty much everywhere.

Here at eMATHinstruction, we’ve been working hard to develop tools for teachers and students to run statistical simulations that are useful in understanding variability, confidence intervals and inferential statistics. Last spring, I wrote three programs for the TI-84+ that can be downloaded through this post:

TI Statistics Programs for Statistical Simulation

But, the realization dawned on me that not all students have a TI  calculator and not all schools use it for instruction. So, I was at a loss. No offense to other calculator brands, but I don’t have the time to learn how to program a Casio, HP, or any other type right now.

So, I decided to have web-based simulator programs created so the three simulators could be accessed independent of calculators. Of course, this does raise problems in terms of graphing the results, but we are working on that. All results from these simulators can easily be copied and pasted into Excel or other statistical presentation programs.

Anyhow, the awesome computer science teacher at Arlington High School, Mrs. Dawn Orlik, recommended two students to me, Kyle Patterson and Talha Quereshi. Both worked very hard on the programs and both created good pages. Kyle’s were the ones I ultimately went with because of their ability to integrate seamlessly with my website.

Kyle’s programs are works in progress, but better than any that are out there right now. Check them out by clicking on any of the links below (click on the bold face title).

Difference in Sample Means: In this simulator, users enter two sets of data corresponding to two different experimental treatments. Don’t forget to hit the enter button. The simulator will mix the two treatment sets up and calculate the difference in sample means for as many simulations as you choose. The distribution of these random differences establishes how significant the original difference was between the two treatments means. The plot below shows simulated differences in sample means for a sample set of data in our Unit #13.Lesson #7. The original treatments had a difference of 2.3, which is rarely seen on this distribution.

 

Sample Normal Distribution: In this simulator, the user generates random samples of any size from a normally distributed population. The user specifies the mean and standard deviation of the population and the number of simulations. Bonus: Kyle built in two automatic histograms, one showing the distribution of sample means and one showing the distribution of sample standard deviations (click on the image below for a far better picture). This is a super great program to see how likely a sample with a particular mean would be from a population with certain characteristics.

Sample Proportion Simulator: In this simulator, a user specifies a population proportion to sample from, a sample size, and a number of trials. The simulator then generates samples from a population with the specified proportion and calculates a sample proportion for each simulation trial. These sample proportions are then ranked so that the user can plot them and generate confidence intervals.  The dot plot shown below shows the results from a population with a proportion of 0.3, a sample size of 50, and 100 simulations. One sample even had a proportion as low as 0.16. Cool! This is a great program to test how likely a sample proportion would be given a population proportion and sample size.

These programs will be the basis for many of the lessons in our Common Core Algebra II unit on Statistics. They will also serve as the basis for a talk I’ll be giving in Rochester in the Fall at the State AMTNYS conference. I’m excited to continue to think about the role of statistical simulation in teaching kids about inferential statistics.

 

 

 

 

 

So, I’ve been on “vacation” for two weeks now and have been busy with Common Core Algebra II materials. Primarily I’ve been working on recording the YouTube videos for each lesson. I’m excited to see how these help students and teachers in the coming school year as CC Alg II becomes implemented in New York and other areas.

I’ve always found that many students hit a wall at the Algebra 2 level. A student can manage to earn in the mid-70’s in both Algebra 1 and Geometry and then not be able to pass Algebra 2 (with Trig). So, I’m hopeful these videos can be another tool to help students get beyond that wall. As we all know, Algebra 2 is now considered the gateway mathematics to competitive college acceptance. Check out a newly uploaded CC Algebra II video at:

CCAlgII.U4L4.Writing Equations of Exponential Functions.YouTube Video

Edits are also ongoing on both the text (workbooks) and the answer key. I’ve got a former student, Fraz Lugay, working on finding mistakes I’ve made in the text and the answer key. All of this should come together around the end of July. Final edits will be done and the text will go to our printers at the end of the first week of August. We believe Answer Key CD’s will begin shipping around August 14th and Workbooks will begin to ship around August 19th. Getting there!

I’m off to Italy for the first vacation I’ve taken in two years. Excuse me if I’m slow returning email.

I don’t know about anyone else but my “last day” at work was yesterday, Thursday June 25th. Strange that my last day would be a Thursday, but, of course, that means that today, Friday June 26th, is the …

FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION!!!!

It’s like the greatest and longest Saturday ever.

Sorry about the all caps, but I slept from 11:00 last night until 8:00 this morning. I had been on a really long streak of getting only around 4 hours of sleep per night, so I feel great.

Anyhow, we are progressing nicely on Common Core Algebra II and have completed the second draft. I’m presenting it here in its compiled form along with an updated table of contents and an alignment analysis. So, all of you who are not completely and utterly burnt out can start to plan for CC Alg II next year. For those who are burnt out, you can start next week.

Common Core Algebra II Table of Contents.Second Draft

Alignment of PARCC CC Alg II Standards with eMath CC Alg II Text

Common Core Algebra II.Version 1.0.Second Draft

Hey All,

Well, I’ve just finished the complete first draft of Common Core Algebra II and its answer key. I did a preliminary alignment analysis with the PARCC End of Year (EOY) standards. These are what NYSED is supposed to base its Regents exams on. I also adjusted due to NYSED’s recent standards clarifications and added 4 additional lessons (can you say reciprocal trigonometric functions?).

I just updated the Table of Contents with these new additions. We now stand at 107 lessons. Here’s the Table of Contents:

Common Core Algebra II Table of Contents

I have also recently created an alignment document to show where each of the PARCC EOY standards is hit in our various lessons. Taken together, the Table of Contents and the Alignment document should help schools who adopt the curriculum to understand where they’d like to supplement. Here’s the alignment document:

Alignment of PARCC CC Alg II Standards with eMath CC Alg II Text