Using Geogebra for Online College Algebra & Trigonometry Courses

Using Geogebra for Online College Algebra & Trigonometry Courses

Kimberly Bennekin EMAT 6690 - Dr. Jim Wilson University of Georgia

Using Geogebra for Online College Algebra & Trigonometry Courses

Geogebra is a free dynamic mathematics software and online program that many teachers use to teach geometry units in education curriculums all over the world (Hohenwarter & Borcherds, 2012). It is easy, widely used, and an alternative to other expensive software programs that are very similar to Geogebra. There are many K-12 teachers today that try to incorporate technology into their Geometry courses, for better student understanding. NCTM contends that Technology enriches the range and quality of investigations by providing a means of viewing mathematical ideas from multiple perspectives (NCTM, 2000). Some professors who train pre-service teachers, at the college level, also use Geogebra with their students, however, those who are not teaching Geometry may not see a use for this particular technology. There are several ways you can incorporate Geogebra into College Algebra and Precalculus topics, which has rarely used by teachers. The purpose of this paper is to show some uses of Geogebra in mathematics instructional units that do not teach Geometry. When I was first introduced to Geogebra, I was excited to discover that this program was just as robust as other similar interactive software programs (e.g., the Geometers Sketchpad) that cost schools hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. As a college instructor at a community college, I have never taught Geometry because it is not offered. Geometry is considered a junior/senior level elective for students who are mathematics or mathematics education majors. Thus, even a four-year college will have low enrollment for this course, compared to other math courses such as college algebra, pre-calculus, etc. As a junior level faculty member, it may be several years before one gets a chance to teach it. If you dont teach Geometry and/or you have no interest in teaching that course, you may wonder why you need to learn how to use this geometrical software. This paper will explain how I used Geogebra in different ways for College

Using Geogebra for Online College Algebra & Trigonometry Courses

Algebra and Trigonometry instructional units used in online mathematics courses at the community college level. What originally attracted me to Geogebra was its ability to easily create interactive, webbased mathematics applets. These applets allow online students the opportunity to individually investigate the mathematics without having to download the program onto their computer. It runs on a Java platform, which most online learning environments already use. Having an applet accessible through the internet makes the program easy to view and use. It also gives the instructor the ability to tailor an applet to a particular mathematics problem, guiding the student to what the instructor wants them to concentrate on. My first thought was to create an applet where students can play around with the attributes of a function and see its effect on the graph. Connecting the changes of a function to the changes in its graph is a concept that is covered by many College Algebra and Trigonometry textbooks. Even though I am not currently teaching Geometry, I know that Geogebra has this ability, so I sought out to see how I could make it work for me and my students in College Algebra and Trigonometry courses. I began with creating an instructional unit for a College Algebra course. This instructional unit reviews modeling linear and quadratic functions. In the activity, students are part of a tribal council, who will decide the winners of various tasks. In the first round, there are five contestants that are throwing a stone to a target, given some constraints. Students are given coordinate data and are asked the find the three contestants that hit closest to the target. After the top three are determined by the class, they move on to the next round. In Round 2, the contestants are given a barrier in their path and asked to throw over the barrier to the target. Given more information, students will be able to determine the final winner. In both rounds,
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Using Geogebra for Online College Algebra & Trigonometry Courses

students are provided with Microsoft EXCEL graphing tools. These tools allow students to enter coordinate data and graph the functions to view the path of the stone. From this tool, students are able to view the path of the stone to determine the winner of the tasks. A second instructional unit was created for the Precalculus level, which investigates the function and the graph of the Sine wave. Given a dataset that is cyclic in nature (moon phase data), students are asked to come up with a Sine function that models that data as closely as possible. They do this visually, using the graph of the Sine function that is embedded within a web-based Geogebra mathematics applet. After opening the applet, the student sees the data points already graphed and a generic Sine function of the form, () = a sin(bx + c) + d. Students are able to use sliders on the applet to manipulate the values of a, b, c and d. As they manipulate the variable values on the sliders, they can instantly view the changes in the Sine graph. This applet is meant to be used as a visual aide to fitting the best curve to the data set. Allowing the students to use the applet would eliminate the need for learning how to use a new mathematics program. The applet was very easy to create and even easier to use. Another unit I created involves a topic in College Algebra, exponential functions. I wanted to create an applet that uses real-world population models. For this activity, I ask students to go to the US Census website and choose a state to investigate. Each student is asked to choose a different state. They are to find the current population and the percent increase from 2000 to 2010. When they find that information, they can write the exponential function that models that data. At this point, I ask them to test their functions to check and see if they get the

Using Geogebra for Online College Algebra & Trigonometry Courses

same population for 2010 from their model. If they dont, I ask them to adjust their model using a Geogebra applet. The applet for this activity includes a general exponential function of the form, () = 0 , with sliders for A0 and k. They can adjust the k value, using the sliders, until they are happy with a function they believe will give the closest prediction for the 2010 population of that state. Once they decide on a function, they can make their prediction for 2020. I have already collected some student feedback about this activity. One student mentioned that a Google document may be beneficial for students to enter all their state data on a spreadsheet, to make the compilation of data easier online. Using this data, they will determine where they should move when they graduate, based on population models. Applying the use of Geogebra to create mathematics applets in these lessons opened my eyes to the many uses of the software. Having a program that allows you to save in an HTML format and make accessible over the web is perfect for online mathematics course components. It provides a controlled environment for the students to individually explore mathematic topics and get immediate results on the manipulations they make. I know that I have not scratched the surface in all the capabilities of Geogebra, but I at least know now that Geogebra is a software program that can be very useful to me, even though I am not teaching Geometry.

Using Geogebra for Online College Algebra & Trigonometry Courses

References Hohenwarter, M. & Borcherds, M. (2012). Geogebra software (version 4) [software]. Available from http://www.geogebra.org/cms/ National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. Retrieved from http://nctm.org/