Session+7

April 27, 2011 Today, we gave the students a tutorial about how to use PowerPoint. We did this by making a PowerPoint, which we displayed on the Promethean board, while going through the individual steps with them. None of the students had ever used PowerPoint before so we only explained the basics and repeated these. Some of the technology concepts we taught them include how to insert a text box, how to drag a text box and other objects, how to insert a picture, how to resize a picture, how to insert a new slide, how to format text, and how to change the background color. We emphasized to students that although we would like their projects to look neat and have some color, that we do not want them to be too concerned about the appearance of their PowerPoints. The main purpose of their PowerPoints are to convey information about their theme parks and tell how these parks were mathematically designed. We asked the students to let us know if they have any questions. We then gave the class work time. Only one group was allowed to work on the computers because this group had found all of the areas and perimeters of their attractions. Unfortunately, most of the groups are taking longer than we had hoped for with their projects. However, we will continue to guide them and try to keep them focused.

In addition to teaching students how to use PowerPoint, we also showed them what information was required of them on their PowerPoint. Although we only included the area and perimeter of one ride, we told them that they have to include this information for all of their rides. The sample PowerPoint we made looked something like this:

SLIDE 1 Lions' Den Park by Miss Elizabeth and Miss Stanton A=236,500 feet squared Scale=1 square=10 feet

SLIDE 2 The Roaring Rollercoaster 16 squares X 10 feet=160 feet 24 squares X 10 feet=240 feet A=160 ft X 240 ft=38,400 ft squared P=160 ft+160 ft+240 ft+240 ft=800 ft

Other Attractions: Simba's Gift Shop, Nala's Junk Food Stand, Restrooms

(picture of roller coaster)