Group+Inquiry+Page

While I think grammar bytes is a good tool to use in any english class, especially since grammar seems to be such an unhoned skill generally speaking in today's students. I am not sure how inquiry based this game would be because it seems to be recall level questioning. I think for it to be inquiry based there should be more higher order thinking involved. However, I agree it is a useful tool in the classroom and seems like the children would enjoy it, as well as fitting in nicely with the English language arts state standards.

-Mike

Martha,

(4-5) I loved Math Goodies! Math is a seriously frustrating subject for me which is why I am an English teacher. However, this website is a great resource to have. I tried the site and found many interesting components useful to teachers and students in the following ways:
 * __Games__: I was disappointed that some of the games were not free and in fact cost $49.00. I hope that included more than one game. But there were some free samples that I tried out like Percent Goodies (converting to a fraction,decimal or percent) and the Factor Tree Game which factors out composite and prime numbers. Both of these were fun but the thrill wears off after a few rounds.These did not involve higher-level thinking.


 * __Lessons__: A great part of the website is the lessons part where they really break down common math lessons such as Least Common Multiples and Exponents into easily understandable pieces. The worksheets are good to print out and use in class although students would not really use them on their own.These did not involve higher-level thinking.


 * __Homework and Forums:__ The homework portion was one of the most interesting to me, I wish this was around when I was struggling with Math 2 (Geometry). It looks like students can post puzzling homework question and someone will either help them solve it or directly answer it for them. I wonder if the virtual "tutors" get paid? The homework section was not inquiry-based learning. The forums were thread-based topics where teachers and parents could also post as well as students. I read through an interesting debate on whether "discalculia" is a real learning disability. I think it is and I wanted to get involved in the debate.


 * __WebQuests__: (6) This was the part of the website that was inquiry based. If a student were to try to complete these WebQuests they would definitely use higher level thinking. I tested out the WebQuests on Climate Change. This WebQuest incorporates math skills with global warming and weather changes and the student can really see where their higher level math skills will come into use in the real world. I like that they connect math problems with hot topics in the world. This will make the lesson much more interesting to the learner. The Climate Change WebQuest was chock-full of interesting links like the global warming early warning signs around the world and pdf documents about ice melting. This would be a great WebQuest for interdisciplinary studies with Science lessons. If I was a math teacher I would be likely to bookmark this site.I think this is the best example of inquiry based learning. Another great WebQuest was the one on Pi Day, a holiday I am not likely to celebrate but what a great way to get kids to learn more about circumference by making an event of it? This was another example of inquiry learning. A third example was percent in daily life with real life situations like credit cards and income taxes. Another perfect use of inquiry learning.

In all, this was a great example of an inquiry-based activity website.

Thanks, Elizabeth O'Keeffe