J-term TI-Nspire in the Snow

Actually, the class that I'm teaching is called Exploring Math & Science with TI technology (especially the TI-Nspire CAS). J-term is a nice way to get back into the swing of school after the break. There are 3 hour morning and afternoon classes that students can take. Most of the upperclassman intern for the two weeks. I limited the class size since I knew I would have a diverse group. I have about 3 freshman, 5 sophomores, and a junior who are taking algebra 1, geometry, alg 2, trig & pre-calc. TImath.com has been a great resource to give some exceptional differentiated instruction.

We have used some of the resources I put together back when I did the Physics of Toys J-term. (Check out our science of toys booklet. I need to edit it and fix the typos.)
So far we have investigated the terminal velocity of various sized bubbles, the distance a toy car goes when pulled back a certain distances, logistic curves from temperature data. We have also discussed diffraction, thin film interference, impulse-momentum, air resistance and other physics concepts.

More pictures of the good times with bubbles, snow, and data collection and analysis with TI-Nspire can be seen on this album.









After starting with the TI-Nspire CAS Primer, the students have done geometry investigations and SAT practice reviews. Next we'll do more with CBR motion detectors. I was particularly impressed with one student's unique depiction of his Fahrenheit and Celsius data today (see below). For other interesting graphs I've seen, check out this.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
Proverbs 25:2 (NIV)

Live as children of the King - explore and search out matters.