One way to gain a better understanding of a topic is to think about
teaching it to other people. In this project, you
will develop a plan for presenting a topic in discrete math to
students, parents, and other teachers. We will collect all the
projects into a book/webpage for everyone in the class to use.
You may choose any topic that we haven't covered in this class or in a
class you have already had (such as MCS 115). Your audience may
be an after-school math club of about 15-20 students, a small
group of mathematically gifted students, or a small group of
mathematically challenged students. You can assume any two grade
levels you would like. Thus, for example, you might design an
activity for 2-3 mathematically gifted fifth and sixth
grade students to work on with the help of a teacher or teacher's
aide.
Your activity should have at least four parts. These
are modeled on the activities in Tom Hull's book, Project Origami, so be sure to take
a look at that book. You may prefer to make web pages (especially
if your activity uses Java applets), in which case you should
hand in a printout of the main page.
The first part should be a relatively brief description of the activity
that is read by the teacher implementing the activity. It should
describe the audience, a brief summary of the activity, and a
description of the handouts and materials needed for the
activity. You may also include a description of the time
needed for the activity, a list of books to read that may be relevant
to the activity, or anything else that you think would be helpful to
the teacher.
The next part should be any handouts, blackline masters,
templates for making manipulatives, web addresses for applets, etc.
The third part should be a letter to the parents that describes
what their children did and learned, and how to get more information on
the topic.
The final part should be a description of the theory behind the
activity.