Well, it’s April 16th, so the weather in New York is now turning sunny and spring is in full tilt with the flowers blooming, the birds singing and …
Actually, I’m just kidding. I woke up to snow this morning. Still, not all is dreary. We are quickly approaching the final stretch of the academic year (you are likely just starting the fourth quarter). We have been busy at eMATHinstruction working on a variety of different resources, updating our website, and creating add-ons for the courses. Let’s get right into those.
For Common Core Algebra I Add-Ons this month we have added a quiz and a new lesson. For Unit 10 (Statistics) we have added a Form B mid-unit quiz. Last year we added the original quiz and this year we have a makeup or Form B of the quiz. These are always handy when it comes to students who are absent or even if you want to give Period 1 the Form A and Period 2 the Form B. We always try to make them as similar as possible, while still making the questions unique. For Unit 11 (the final unit) we added Lesson 6.5 on Additional Piecewise Functions work. In this lesson we have piecewise functions that include linear, quadratic, and root functions. I still believe that the idea of piecewise functions is challenging enough so that it should be as basic as possible, i.e. just piecewise linear, but clearly the makers of standardized tests disagree with me as they often will include pieces that are non-linear.
For Common Core Algebra II Add-Ons we bring you two activities centered on the probability and statistics units (Units 12 and 13). For Unit 12 (Probability) we have created a Die Rolling Probability activity. We have the students use the random number simulator on the calculators to simulate rolling two die and summing their rolls. We then have them investigate the empirical versus theoretical probabilities associated with this experiment as well as answer a variety of conditional probability questions. There is no associated homework with this activity. In Unit 13 (Statistics) we created Lesson 4.5 on Sampling a Population. We created a data set of 200 values that students then randomly sample from. Students calculate sample means and standard deviations from their samples and then compare these to the population statistics. Like the Die Rolling Activity, this lesson has no homework associated with it.
In our Algebra 2 with Trigonometry Add-Ons this month we have a quiz and another lesson. For Unit 10 (Exponential and Logarithmic Functions) we offer up a mid-unit quiz that covers all of the content through Lesson #6 (Graphing Basic Logarithms). In Unit 11 (Probability) we created Lesson 7.5 on More Binomial Probability Practice. In this lesson we use the calculator to find binomial probabilities and cumulative binomial probabilities for a variety of applied problems.
In other exciting news, eMATHinstruction will be at the national NCTM conference next week!!!
We will have a booth set up where you can come and chat and we will also be presenting on Friday afternoon. Drop by and say hi if you are at the conference.
In Geometry news, Version 2.0 of our workbook is now for sale. This new book has the Unit Reviews now included at the end of each unit, so its quite a bit longer than the original book. We’ll begin to add-on to this course starting in August. As always, if you have suggestions in terms of what you’d like us to add, please reach out (make up tests, mid-unit quizzes, extra problem sets, extra lessons).
We’ve been doing some major behind the scenes work on our website recently. We added a second server which does two things for us. First, if the primary server were ever to “crash” then the second server would keep the site up and running. But, even better, the second server allows us to “load balance” the traffic to the site. Hopefully this means shorter page and download times. Now, with all major website work, there are always hiccups in the system. Most of you probably have not had any trouble, but some of you, when trying to go to our main site, have experienced errors such as a “failure to redirect” or “emathinstruction.com” sent an invalid response or even scary messages like “corrupted content error.” I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand what’s happening. But, apparently a one-time fix of clearing the computer’s cache gets the job done. How to clear cache is very browser dependent (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari …). The University of Wisconsin (go Badgers) has an awesome site with links to every major browser and operating system:
You know cache is the issue if you can get to our site through one browser but not through another one.
Have a great rest of your April. I hope that spring has arrive for you soon, if it hasn’t already shown up (no sign yet here).