RESEARCHING SUPPORT MATERIALS FOR GEOMETRY EDUCATION SOFTWARE

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO RESEARCH HOW A NEW EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE TOOL, THE GEOMETER'S SKETCHPAD, BASED ON STATE-OF-THE-ART COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY AND ADVANCED PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES, CAN BEST BE USED BY STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. THIS RESEARCH WILL LAY THE BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLICATION OF A SET OF TEACHER SUPPORT MATERIALS INCLUDING BOTH TEACHER TRAINING MATERIALS AND STUDENT ACTIVITY GUIDES. THESE CAN BE USED TOBETTER ENABLE TEACHERS TO EFFECTIVELY USE THE DYNAMIC GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTIONS AND SCRIPT SAVING FEATURE IN THE GEOMETER'S SKETCHPAD. THE PROJECT WILL INCLUDE: ANALYSIS OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH THAT USED EXISTING GEOMETRIC MODELING SOFTWARE, OBSERVATIONSAND INTERVIEWS WITH THE INITIAL GROUP OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS USING THE THE GEOMETER'S SKETCHPAD, ASSESSMENT OF THE ATTITUDES AND PERFORMANCE OF THESE SAME STUDENTS, IDENTIFICATION OF TEACHER NEEDS IN EFFECTIVELY EMPLOYING THESOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, CREATION AND TESTING OF PROTOTYPE TEACHING MATERIALS, AND IDENTIFICATION OF NEEDS FOR TEACHER TRAINING. SPECIAL ATTENTION WILL BE GIVEN TO IDENTIFYING HOW THE GEOMETER'S SKETCHPAD CAN BE USED SUCCESSFULLY BY THE BROADEST SPECTRUM OF STUDENTS, ESPECIALLY THOSE UNDERREPRESENTED IN ADVANCED MATHEMATICS CLASSES-WOMEN, MEMBERS OF MINORITIES, AND DISABLED.