ISTE Article 2

Mapping Student Minds
Ariel Owen

I thought this article was really interesting. First of all, it's awesome to see how the classroom is no longer limited by time or budgets. In this article, middle school students in Walnut Creek, CA use technology in order to reach a better understanding of health and science topics. The school takes trips to the local creek, Pine Creek, in order to collect data and observe the habitat. Due to lack of budget, resources and time, the shchool can only take the children out twice a year. The students do not let this hinder their interest in learning, but instead take advantage of 21st Century technology and take virtual tours of teh creek. All the students put their data together and in the end, learn and come to conclusions rogether. I also like how they described Casual Mapping as "making thinking visible". It is so much easier to understand your data when you have all your information laid out and organized in front of you.

Q1)
Even though Casual Mapping was used in the scientific field, how would it benefit students struggling with math?
Casual mapping involves cause-and-effect. Math students can do a Casual Map for something like exponents. What does an exponent do to a number? What does it do to a number in parentheses? An equation? An equation in parentheses?

Q2)
Would I be able to use virtual field trips in the class room?
The majority of Middle School Math is done on paper. There really isn't room for exploration except for learning a theorem and just practing and exploring from there. However, I would be able to take advantage of other interactive tools like the one I found on Webfinity. It was an online fraction generator and will give the students a visual of how the numerator and denominator affect the overall number.

Owen, A. (2002). Mapping Student's Mind. Learning and Leading with Technology Journal 29 (7), 6-9, 26.