Teaching High School Mathematics: Beautiful Lessons found on the Scenic Route

Saturday, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., Elkhorn D
Teachers often make decisions about which topics to include in a given course and must also determine how much time to allocate to each topic. At the high school level, it is not unusual for teachers to be required to follow a detailed syllabus as they strive to prepare students for a final examination that may be written by someone other than the instructor. This is the case when departments choose to give one final exam to all sections of a particular course, and the same occurs for high school Advanced Placement teachers who are preparing students for an end of the year AP examination. In other instances, teachers have a great deal of freedom in designing their courses and syllabi.

In this Contributed Paper Session, we are inviting mathematics teachers to share their “best” lessons. Talks will focus on a favorite topic or activity – the one that you would like to include in every course because whenever you use this activity, students both understand and enjoy the process. Often, this “best” lesson can facilitate important connections to further study in mathematics. This lesson may be a topic that is central to your course or it may be an activity or process that enhances students’ interest in and enthusiasm for mathematics. Some instructors may wish to discuss a topic that they have been unable to include in recent teaching because of outside pressures. We encourage instructors to discuss techniques they use at the beginning of a course to give an overview for the semester, as well as topics or projects that come near the end of a course to serve as either a capstone experience or a reward after completing required course topics. We invite you to get off the superhighway and think about the gems that await discovery on the scenic route.

Presentations and copies of the PowerPoints

Exploring Families of Curves (Dan Teague, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics)

Graphing Rational Functions and Solving Rational Inequalities Without a Calculator (Peter Joyce, Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville, Maryland)

Outdoors with Mathematics in the National Parks (Kristine Hoffman, West Platte R-II Jr/Sr High School, Kansas)

Proofs by Mathematical Induction for High School Students (Susan Wildstrom, Walt Whitman High School, Maryland)

Size of n! (Stirling Approximation) in Calculus: Important, Useful, and Fun (Robert Sachs, George Mason University,Virginia)

Using Explorations to Discover Derivatives (Susan Wildstrom, Walt Whitman High School, Maryland)

Thanks to our presenters...and an enthusiastic audience!