GeoGebra Institute:2012 Annual Report GI California
People
Agnes Tuska (chair person)
Rajee Amarasinghe
Bill Lombard
Armando M. Martinez-Cruz
Oscar Vega
Andrew Hammons
Location
California State University, Fresno
CA Institute Site
http://GeoGebraCA.org -or- http://GeoGebraCalifornia.org
Training and Support
Certificates given by our GeoGebra Institute:
• Trainer Certificate to Michael Chamberlain for leading workshops to teachers and for instructing grade 5-9 students in Summer Math Academy.
• Expert Certificate to Bradley Powers for developing an environment to do investigations in hyperbolic geometry (his work is posted in our institute’s website).
• Expert Certificate to Michael Watkins for consulting on GeoGebra programming issues with teachers and graduate students.
• User Certificate to Andrew Hammons for co-designing and completing an online tutorial course in GeoGebra use.
Presentations on conferences/workshops:
• Tuska, Agnes: GeoGebra: A Common Ground for Mathematical Investigations. California Mathematics Council, Northern Session Annual Conference, Asilomar, December, 2012.
• Rajee Amarasinghe, Michael Chamberlain, and Agnes Tuska incorporated GG into many professional development institutes for K-12 teachers at Fresno State University. They have also engaged participants in investigations with GeoGebra during the summer intensive teacher leader development institute of the San Joaquin Valley Mathematics Project.
Research and Collaboration
Collaborations during 2012:
• In collaboration with the San Joaquin Valley Math Project and with Fresno County Office of Education, we have organized two Technology Days with GeoGebra programs (in addition to others). Interested participants could continue with more in-depth study and earn university credit by completing GeoGebra course work via Global Education of Fresno State.
• In order to collaborate with other institutes, Agnes has registered to attend the GeoGebra meeting (NCTM pre-conference), Denver, Colorado, April 16, 2013.
We use GG in some math courses at Fresno State University:
• Rajee uses GG for years in Math 134: Geometry for Liberal Studies, for demonstrations, illustrations, conjectures, proofs, constructions. He has also used GG in methods classes and in courses for prospective middle school teachers.
• Agnes uses GG in MATH 260: (graduate level) Perspectives in Geometry, MATH 75B: Calculus, and in MATH 145: Problem Solving.
• Oscar Vega used GG in MATH 75B: Calculus, to support many concepts during his instruction.
• Many instructors at Fresno State use GeoGebra for demonstrations and assign homework that requires students to investigate mathematics concepts with the use of the software.
We advised Master's projects in GG:
• Bradley Powers: Conic Sections and Dynamic Modeling of Hyperbolic Geometry. Bradley's work on hyperbolic geometry was discussed at a GeoGebra Core Developer Meeting in Linz, 2012. Advisor: Oscar Vega. Committee members: Larry Cusick, Agnes Tuska
• Cher Chang: Exploring Newton’s Proof of the Kepler Problem with GeoGebra. Advisor: Lance Burger. Committee members: Rajee Amarasinghe, Doreen DeLeon, Agnes Tuska
Development and Sharing
GeoGebra dynamic applet/webpage creation:
• Oscar Vega developed many GG applets/webpages to support his instruction of a first semester calculus course during the Spring. These resources were shared with other professors and used to demonstrate various ideas in calculus, such as limits, Newton's method, Riemann sums, etc..
Instructional videos on the GG of CA web portal:
• Bill Lombard planned, created, and produced four introductory videos on the use of GG to assist new and developing users. Bill plans on creating more beneficial GG videos this year to be posted on the GG of CA web portal. The current videos hosted on our site are titled:
o “GeoGebra-First Steps-Downloading”
o “First Steps to Basic Customizing of GeoGebra”
o “First Steps to Intermediate Customizing of GeoGebra”
o “First Steps to Advanced Customizing of GeoGebra”
Online GG tutorial course:
• Agnes Tuska and Andrew Hammons co-designed our first online GG tutorial course based largely on the IGI’s introductory materials, “Tutorials for Beginners”. A revised version of our course will be available in the spring of 2013. Our learning management system, Moodle (Modular-Object-Oriented-Dynamic-Learning-Environment), integrated with the GeoGebra filter worked very well for this course.
GG Institute of CA web portal, integrated web conferencing, domain specific email:
• Our GG Institute of California web portal (http://www.geogebraca.org) was launched by Andrew Hammons for interested Californians to access local GG information and supportive collaboration with other local GG users. A subscription based service is incorporated into our web portal to gather site visitor contact information, while also distributing information about local GG events and offerings.
• Big Blue Button, a leading open source web conferencing system, embedded within our web portal for instant, live interactive web conferencing rooms. Virtual online training sessions and future GG of CA leadership meetings are being scheduled for 2013 using BBB.
• A domain-specific (mailto:admin@geogebraca.org) email server is deployed for current and future membership use.
