Home | Help | Login | Signup         Jennifer Saden Undergraduate Student Tampa Florida United States Education University of South Florida, St. Petersburg                 My Folios Employment Portfolio FEAP Portfolio FEAP Portfolio Education in Turkey Leonardo DiCaprio Professional Development Portfolio My Employment Portfolio My Learning Portfolio FEAP 2011 Portfolio My Resume                 Back to Folio Evidence #1: Function Machine Project                 Evidence #1: Function Machine Project View File The assignment used as evidence for AP#4- Critical Thinking is my Function Machine paper from MAE 4326. I worked alone for this assignment where I made a machine that solves algebraic equations ‘magically’. The machine included an input and an output. I designed mine to write a number on a scrap of paper and put into the input. Next, there are headphones attached to put on and ‘hear’ the new number. (This part is for the teacher only, because obviously there is no real number being said by the machine. You just make one up.) Then, you must decide what the function is, in other words, what did the machine do to the original number to get the new number?                 Reflection This assignment meets this AP in many ways. The function machine is a teaching activity that helps students practice using higher order thinking skills and to think critically to solve algebraic equations. This function machine is mostly used to introduce algebraic concepts to students, so asking students higher-order thinking questions is necessary for them to understand these unfamiliar concepts. For example, you would model the correct way to use the function machine first for the students. Put a number in, listen for the new number, and then try to figure out what the machine did to the original number. After modeling the concept a few times, the students are then asked to figure out the ‘function’ that the machine is doing inside the box. Because this algebraic concept is so abstract, you must activate their higher-order thinking skills. As written in my paper, you do this by asking questions such as “what did the machine do? And what would we need to do to the number two to make it four? Is four bigger or smaller than two? Would we need to add more to it then? How much more?” And so on. Eventually, when the students are comfortable with this idea, you can let them work in pairs or groups and come up with their own functions. The idea of the function machine is also beneficial because it is a hands-on activity that allows them to explore different ways to thinking critically. My function machine lesson was implemented in a first-grade summer school class. I worked with six students. I believe this activity was very beneficial to these students. First of all, they were in summer school because they were struggling math students. So, by giving them hands-on materials to work with (function machine), visuals to look at (I would write down every single problem they did on a sheet of paper as we were doing it so they could see the numbers as we were talking about them and using them in the machine), and asking them higher-order thinking questions truly reinforced the idea of thinking algebraically to them. First off, the entire idea is inventive and exciting for students. It is not like any other activity they have ever done, so they are stimulated and interested to use the machine. The machine shows abstract ideas, like putting in a number then the machine and the machine ‘creating’ a new number by using a mystery function. The students do not physically see the number being changed, but by asking them stimulating questions to move them to thinking critically, they understood the abstract idea, even as struggling math students. This activity also allowed for students to work together cooperatively and to use a little creativity and imagination to learn and understand the algebraic concept.