Jessica Woolard, a graduate of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Torontoher, spent part of her summer interning for NCTM before she returned to Canada to complete her degree in education. While here, she helped to create and edit lessons for Illuminations. Today we spotlight Where is Everybody?
, a fun lesson written by Jessica that compares U.S. and Canadian data using two Illuminations activities
Many great things have come from our neighbors to the north, Blackberry PDA's, IMAX technology, and if you ask any teenage girl, Justin Bieber. "Where Is Everybody?" not only quizzes students on their Canadian trivia knowledge, but also serves as a way for students to work flexibly with decimals, fractions and percents to make comparisons and solve problems. The lesson also utilizes the online Illuminations activities, State Data Map and Canada Data Map.
"My hope in creating this lesson was to enable students to think more critically about data," said Woolard. "Students should also walk away with a better overall awareness of geography and demographics."
Woolard strived to create a lesson that was inline with how she interpreted the Illuminations site, which is as a site that offers a wealth of lesson and applets for exploration, but teachers can take what they like from the lesson and adapt it to their classroom.
"In creating the lesson and questions for students, I wanted to create an opportunity for teachers to allow students to work in groups. Group work can lead to the development of new questions for the class based on the group's results," Woolard said.
During her time at NCTM Woolard also worked to create a couple, other new lessons and also spent her time in the NCTM publications department. Be sure to watch for the rest of her lessons on the Illuminations site!