What I’ve Been Reading:
- The Power of the Visual by Garr Reynolds
I’ve been putting off this post for a long time.
I’ve never used images in my teaching before; nor have I, before, really considered using images in my teaching. So, because of this, it was tough to get started on this post.
Anyway…
The following animation I came across one day on Wikipedia when I was reading about pi. It demonstrates the relationship between diameter, circumference and pi………. very effectively.
This (the relationship between diameter, circumference and pi), from my experience, is something students have trouble understanding/visualising.
The current book we’re using in class doesn’t do a great job of explaining this relationship. And, to make things harder for the students, I too have a tough time explaining it.
It’s (the animation) something I’m definitely going to use next school year when I teach area of a circle again.
The next image, I’m planning to use when I teach functions again next school year.
In many ways, a function is comparable to a machine (or at least this type of machine) (and by the way, I have no idea what this machine does.) They both take an input. They both do things to this input. And, finally, they both give an output.
I might need to photoshop input and output arrows into the image. Input on the left and output on the right. I might also need to photoshop a function into the image (just above the machine) so that students better understand the analogy.
Image Credits:
- Pi-unrolled-720.gif. Found on Wikipedia. Creative Commons Licensed.
- Machine.jpg.
