Number Theory and Algebra Working GroupThursday, July 12Presentation: "Choose Eight Points": An activity to Refresh basic coordinate geometry vocabulary. Victoria began her outstanding presentation with the "eight point test". A student is given a sheet of graph paper and asked to randomly choose eight points on the Cartesian plane. After all students have chosen their points, the teacher reads out point values if points are located in certain locations (for example, two more or points in the third quadrant are worth three points) or with certain properties (three collinear points are worth five points). She gave a TI 89 presentation on representing data using cubic equations. She will continue to provide support on using the TI 89. The group had a serious discussion regarding the "product" that the group will produce. The consensus was that the final product should be of use in the classroom and involve professional development of the participants, including the presentation of materials to colleagues. Finally, Ryata led the group through connecting Pascal's triangle with combinatorics. We will continue investigating Pascal's triangle in connection with polynomial functions. |