[seul-edu] Interactive Exercises on WIMS

[lp <prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us>]

Hi all,

I've been having e-mail troubles so I haven't been able to send timely
replies to some very interesting threads on the mailing list over the
past month.

Regarding the posts on web resources for at-risk kids, we have been
helping various local high schools here in Arizona with their math
curriculum. One of the schools had a 0 % passing rate for the statewide
competency test in Arizona (AIMS test). We are doing 3 specific things
regarding Linux and web resources to help the teachers with their curriculum.

1. We installed an elemetary algebra tutorial as a 'virtual class' on the
World Wide Web Mathematics Server (WIMS) at Cochise College. We
made use of existing tools and exercises installed on WIMS, and we
created some of our own exercises.

The teachers were advised not to lecture a lot, but to give brief examples on specific
skills, then make the kids do a lot of problems right there in class. Sort of a
'guided instruction' format. Written homework is assigned as well as the interactive
exercises on WIMS which keeps track of their scores automatically.  Both the
students and the teachers felt that the WIMS exercises were a good supplemental
activity for a class.

There are currently 51 interactive  exercises that we created and installed on WIMS.
They are still being debugged but the exercises are up on the web if anyone wants to
use them. There are also many other interactive exercise and tools for algebra on the
WIMS site contributed by a variety  of individuals and institutions. Any of them can
be pulled into a 'virtual class'  environment which has message boards capable of
rendering html, tex, and latex. Math teachers can create their own exercises using
either a simple tool called Createxo, or by using Modules which can take more full
advantage of commands from programs like Gnuplot, Pari-GP, Maxima, Octave,
etc. The 51 exercises we did all use the simple Createxo format.

The 51 exercises are at http://math.cochise.cc.az.us/~wims/wims.cgi
Click on Interactive Exercises/Contrib Cochise 2000.

Be sure to click on the "Hint" for more discussion about a problem.
By changing the severity level of a series of questions, the Hints can
be turned off for tests.

16 of the exercises are currently included with the main distribution of WIMS
and are also on the WIMS site in France:
http://math.cochise.cc.az.us/~wims/wims.cgi

If you want to set up a virtual class, all you need is a valid email address. Just
send me a post if you are interested or need help setting something up.

Better yet, you can install all of WIMS for the students and teachers at your own
school, either on the internet or an intranet.

2. We are creating some PHP pages that regenerate questions for drills and quizzes.
Teachers click Reload and get a new set of problems with the answers on the
right hand side which they print out as an answer key. They fold the answers over
and xerox the questions to hand out. As soon as we get these PHP pages finished
I'll post a link for them.

3. We are creating some more WIMS interactiive exercises and tutorials for the
questions on the practice AIMS tests put out by the Arizona Dept. of Education.
If anyone is interested, these sample AIMS test questions in pdf format are at:
http://ade.state.az.us/standards/AIMS/SampleTests/

We hope to have our AIMS tutorials in place by the end of the summer.

Many of the high school teachers really appreciated the teachers from the
Community College showing some interest in their problems. Speaking
personally, it has been a very rewarding experience for me. There was no
real organized effort involved but the work paid off in many tangible ways.

We should know within a year or so if the AIMS scores will improve because
of the efforts. I agree with other people who have emphasized that computers
and web resources  cannot replace good teachers.  I like to use computers
as yet another opportunity to interact with the students personally.

L. Prevett
Mathematics Instructor
Cochise College, Sierra Vista, AZ, US
prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us