SuccessLink Handheld Computers in Education Conference
July 12, 2005
Tan Tar A Resort, Missouri
learninginhand.com/notes

Workshop Description: Take a trip through Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy by learning about several cool activities you can easily do in your own classroom. The journey begins with digital flash cards for the Knowledge level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The trip also includes activities for teaching the Order of Operations, algebra concepts, spreadsheets, Roman numerals, and more. After sampling activities from a full array of thinking skills, teachers will have numerous ideas for teaching differentiated math lessons using handhelds!

Benjamin Bloom ranked thinking skills from simple to complex:
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html

Knowledge Level: Flash Cards
MathCard is a very simple application where students can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division. Under the Setting menu, the user can choose the "Maximum Operand," which is the highest number used in any problem (not the highest possible answer, however). There are some fun ways students can use MathCard:

• Time themselves to figure out how many problems they can do in five minutes.
• See if they can reach a score of 100 out of 100. If a student misses a problem, he or she resets his or her score and tries again.
• Play with a friend by taking turns answering questions on the same handheld.
• Use two handhelds and race against a friend. See who can get the highest score in five minutes.

www.freewarepalm.com/educational/mathcard.shtml

Comprehension Level: Lightning Distance
Using the fact that lightning and thunder travel at different speeds, FlashBoom! calculates the distance you are from a storm. To use FlashBoom! tap the screen when you see the flash and tap the screen again when you hear the boom. FlashBoom! will give the distance you are from the storm in miles or kilometers. Students can work backwards by experimenting with FlashBoom! to discover the mathematical formula it uses for its calculations using this worksheet. A great literature connection to this lesson is Thunder Cake by Patricia Polocco.
http://www.freewarepalm.com/calculator/flashboom.shtml

Application Level: Order of Operations
MathWiz gives students four numbers and a target number. MathWiz has students answer the question, "How would you use the given numbers to achieve the target number?" In order to solve the problem, students must use the Order of Operations (commonly referred to as "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" for Parenthese, Exponents, Multiplication & Division, and Addition & Subtraction). If you want to have some fun, have student try some MathWiz problems without telling them about the Order of Operations. They will be frustrated. But, then when you do teach the Order of Operation, they will understand why they are important and want to try MathWiz again.
hippa-potta.jamisbuck.org/mathwhiz/index.html

Analysis Level: Tired of Tapping
To understand the great differences between very large numbers, students try this estimation activity. Demonstrate the Palm application People Counter. Demonstrate how when you tap the screen, it adds one to the count. Ask students how long they think it would take to tap 100 times. How long would it take to tap 1,000 times? 100,000 times? 1 millions times? 1 billion times? Pass out a Tapping Estimation Sheet to each student. They make an educated guess about how long it would take to tap. The next step is to take an actual 60 minute sample of tapping using People Counter. Then enter that sample into the Tapping Spreadsheet in Sheets To Go. Students can use the spreadsheet to see that it will take a really, really, really long time to tap one billion times!
appsbyaaron.tripod.com/peoplecounter.htm

Synthesis Level: Geometry Forumla Spreadsheets
Using Sheets To Go, students create their own spreadsheets for simple geometry forumals. Examples include the area of a rectangle, circumference, area of a triangle, volume of a cube, and surface area of a rectangular prism. Students are inventive, so let them develop the spreadsheets on their own after the teacher models how to make one. Here's a handout for creating a spreadsheet for the area of a rectangle.

Evaluation Level: Roman Numerals
By interacting with a calculator that uses Roman numerals instead of the usual Arabic digits, students learn about using Roman numerals. Students complete a worksheet that walks them through their exploration of Roman numerals while using the Palm application Numerus. To learn evern more, students will read an eBook about Roman numerals. Finally, students evaluate Romans numerals: Is it a system them would like to have in place today? Why or why not?
Download Numerus: www.freewarepalm.com/calculator/numerus.shtml
Lesson Plan and Resources: learninginhand.com/lessonplans/romannumerals.html
Download the Roman Numerals eBook: learninginhand.com/ebooks/RomanNumerals.pdb

Grab Bag
If time, Tony may be able to show some of the other great math applications below.

Abacus
Move the beads and Abacus will tell the value represented. Also, students can input a value and the abacus will display that value. This is great for teaching place value.
www.palmgear.com

Angles
Estimate the measures of angles. For each round, the user is presented with 10 angles. The difference between the actual angle measurement and the user's guess is added to the score. It's like golf where you want a low score.
www.schau.com/s/angles

Crickometer
Calculate the temperature by counting chirps from crickets. The application does this by averaging 50 samples together and then tries to calculate how many chirps that is per minute. The temperature in Fahrenheit is then calculated as Chirps/Minute ÷ 4 + 37.
www.freewarepalm.com/calculator/crickometer.shtml

Day Trader
Buy and sell six different stocks to make money.
palmgear.com

Minefield
Flag the hidden mines to win this puzzle game.
www.freewarepalm.com/games/minefield.shtml

Mixed Up
Practice converting fractions to mixed numbers or mixed numbers to fractions.
www.schau.com/s/mixedup/index.html

Simplify
Practice reducing fractions into simpliest form. The size of denominator can be selected from the drop down menu.
www.schau.com/s/simplify/index.html

Solar Wars
Buy and sell goods from different planets to make as much money as you can in 60 days.
www.palmgear.com

Tessellation
Create tessellations! This gives students a great visual of how shapes are changed so they can fit into a repeating pattern without gaps or overlaps.
tesselation.sourceforge.net

Handheld Computing Resources

Tony's Website
learninginhand.com

Handhelds for Teachers & Administrators
by Janet Caughlin and Tony Vincent
www.tomsnyder.com/Products/product.asp?SKU=JANHAN

Teaching Now! "Handhelds in Omaha" Video
teachingnow.org/watchTV.php?id=32

Tony's Email
learninginhand@mac.com