The materials for project interactivate fall into three main categories,
activities, discussions, and lessons. There are some additional support
materials in the form of an overview of the goals of the project, a
dictionary, standards for middle school mathematics,
and hyperlinked tables of contents for several middle school
math texts.
The table below gives further information, and provides links to
more detailed indices for the materials.
An activity is an interactive, computer application designed
to teach students about a concept through hands-on experimentation.
Activities usually present good opportunities
for group work as well as individual investigation.
Support materials, which include handouts, tables, worksheets, etc.,
are available for many of these activities and can be accessed from
the why page for that activity.
A discussion is background material written in the form
of a dialogue. Each discussion is devoted to one concept, or
more rarely, several closely related concepts. Some discussions
are based on activities, some are independent. Discussions lead
learners to concepts, introduce vocabulary, and help to develop
important formulas and structure.
A lesson is an overview of how sets of activities and
discussions might be used together to introduce a concept. Included are
lists of prerequisites and suggested outlines. Links to individual
activities and discussions are included.
The Lessons index page contains links directly to the
lessons for those who wish to bypass the textbook contents. The
lessons are designed specifically for teachers.
Each lessons page is organized first by the NCEE/NCTM standard and then divided into specific lessons.
By clicking on a lesson, you open an entire script to help you through your class. Each lesson includes
the following:
Abstract
Objectives
Standards
Student Prerequisites
Teacher Preparation
Lesson Outline
Alternative Outlines for the One Computer Classroom
The activities are designed to be used by students to explore concepts
from the content areas of number and operation, geometry,
measurement, algebra, probability and data analysis.
Each activity comes with supplementary pages. These pages are
accessed from the activity page. Each will open in a new
window, when its button is pressed.
What:
gives background on the activity -- for students;
How:
gives instructions for the activity;
Why:
gives curriculum context for the activity-- for teachers.
These lessons
and activities can be accessed in several ways.
We suggest that teachers access all of the materials through
the lessons either via the standards or via the tables of contents
as described below.
Accessing the Lessons through the Standards
The lessons included in this program are designed to fit the standards dictated by the Department
of Defense Education Activities (DoDEA), the National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE),
and the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
Select the
Standards page, to view a hyperlinked version of the standards
of each organization.
Accessing the Lessons through Text Tables of Contents
The Texts page links teachers to middle school texts that are
supported by Project Interactivate. These pages are tables of contents that are hyperlinked
to the interactivate lessons.
Accessing the Activities Directly
The activities can be accessed directly through the
Activities Index page.
The links on this page lead directly to the java activities.
The activities are Java applets and as such require a Java-capable browser.
Clicking the button below will bring up a window which tells you what you
need to do (if anything) to make your browser run the activities.
If the activity is loading but acting improperly, try the following
steps:
Click the reload button.
If step one doesn't fix the problem, close all browser windows,
restart the browser, and reload the activity.
If step two doesn't fix the problem, try running the activity in
another browser.
If none of the steps above solve the problem, or if the problem occurs very
often, we would like to know about it. At the bottom of every activity
page is a link for "suggesting enhancements or reporting bugs." Please help
us out by clicking this link and describing the problem in as much detail
as possible on the bug reporting form.
The output of the activities in Project Interactivate are created "on the
fly" by a computer language called Java. As a result, they are not regular
images in standard image format, so the "PRINT" button on Netscape or
Internet Explorer will not likely produce an acceptable print. These
instructions should enable you and your students to copy and print ou t
results from your explorations, to annotate them, and to make them part of
any assessment.
For PC/Windows Users
Be sure the part of the output that you want to copy is on the
screen.
Hit the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard (this key is usually located
in the top row of the section of keys between the numeric keypad and the
main keyboard and may be labelled PrSc, PrtScr, etc.). This copies an
images of the screen to your clipboard.
Open your favorite writing or drawing program. These instructions
describe the process for the "Paint" accessory (START--> Programs -->
Accessories --> Paint).
"Paste" the clipboard into the application.
Use the "crop" tool if you want to select only part of the image.
Select the part of the image that you want to keep, then "Cut", open a
New File (no need to save the old one), and "Paste" the desired portion
into the new file.
You may annotate using the text tool.
Now you may print the file.
For Macintosh Users
Hold down one of the following combinations of keys:
Flower+shift+3 creates a picture file of the entire screen.
Flower+shift+4 creates a picture file of a rectangular section of
the screen. (After pressing and releasing the key combination, drag across
the part of the screen you want to take a picture of.)
Flower+shift+4+capslock creates a picture file of a window. (After
pressing and releasing the key combination, click the window you want to
take a picture of.)
Note: To copy a section of the screen or a window to the Clipboard
instead of saving it as a file, press the Control key as you select the
part of the screen or window.
Paste or insert into your favorite drawing or writing program.
