Technology Integration Plan

For this project, I chose a lesson plan called "Paying for Your Wheels," which is the same one that I used for my inclusion class. It was a lesson plan that I got from Illuminations designed for high school students, and focused on data fitting in the context of real life application, owning a car. This lesson assumes students already have some basic prior knowledge about data fitting and linear regression model. Therefore, the goal of this lesson is to increase students’ prior understanding of fitting a regression model to a set of data. In this lesson, students will be introduced to the costs associated with a car, study the amount of fuel used by a car at various speed, perform regression analysis on speed versus fuel economy data, use the True Cost to Own calculator available at Edmunds.com to estimate the monthly cost of owning a specific car, study the relationship between speed and gas mileage, predict a car’s best gas mileage and find the line of best fit using a graphing calculator, and interpret the correlation coefficient. The lesson is aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS).

The link to the lesson plan and the technology integration matrix that I have created for the lesson is provided at the end of this blog post. Each row of the matrix is under different subheadings: assess, analyze, evaluate, produce, and communicate. For the “assess” row, CCSS that I have chosen is “use functions fitted to data to solve problems in the context of the data.” The overall learning goal of the lesson is to use real life data to determine the monthly cost of owning a car by considering all the expenses such as fuel cost associated with it, and fitting a best fit line to the data to make prediction and derive a conclusion. In order to accomplish the goal, students will have to do research online, collect and analyze data, and derive a conclusion based on the result, which is the skills listed under the NETS-S4 and NETS-S5. Teaching strategies that I will use to facilitate students’ achievement of the standards are direct teaching (lecture), problem posing (explanation), class discussion, Q&A, note-taking, small group work, information gathering, and student collaboration. This part of the lesson will be mostly teacher-centered. I will give a short lecture on the costs associated with owning a car, and linear regression model by going over one short example on finding the line of best fit using a calculator, and interpreting the fit of the line by observing the correlation coefficient. And then, I will pose the problem to students, and provide opportunity for students to ask questions. Also, I will let students work in groups or pairs throughout the entire lesson, and go over the results with them. Students will work collaboratively to gather information and data online, and take notes on their findings. Supporting technologies that I have chosen are computers with internet access, a whiteboard or blackboard, and a TI-83 view screen overhead projector. I will use the view screen projector to show students how to calculate the line of best fit on the TI-83 calculator, and students may also use it to share their results with the class.  

For the “analyze” part of the matrix, CCSS that will be addressed is “interpret the correlation coefficient of a linear fit.” Students will have to do data fitting first, and then analyze how well the line fits the data by interpreting the meaning of the correlation coefficient. NETS-S4 will also be addressed because students will have to analyze data to derive a conclusion and make prediction. Strategies associated with this are guided class discussion, student participation, Q&A, and small-group work. This part of the lesson will be mostly student-centered, and requires student participation because students are entirely on their own in terms of gathering and analyzing data. They will work in small groups and at the end, I will start a class discussion on their findings, and ask specific questions to lead the discussion, and provide opportunity for students to raise questions. Technologies that are needed are the same except computers. Students do not need computers to do data analysis.

          For the “evaluate” row, CCSS that will be addressed is “informally assess the fit of a function by plotting.” Students will have to graph the data points on a scatterplot using a calculator, find the equation of the linear regression line, and evaluate the results given by the calculator. In order to do that, they will have to select the appropriate tool (calculator), and use the right built-in features of the tool, which meets NETS-S3. Also, this part of the lesson will be student-centered. Supporting technologies are pretty much the same.

         For the “produce” row, students will have to be able to compute the correlation coefficient using a calculator, fit a line to the data, and make conclusion based on the results, which meets CCSS.HSS-ID. C.8 and B.6a.  Technologies are the same, and this part of the lesson will consists of some teacher-centered strategies such as direct teaching, demonstration and explanation, some student-centered strategies such as student participation and collaboration, and a strategy that counts as both such as Q&A. I will demonstrate and explain to students how to use the calculator to find the equation of the line, and even teach them how to interpret the results correctly. It also requires students to ask and answer questions.

        For the “communicate” row, CCSS.HHS-ID.B.6 will be addressed. Students will have to be able to describe the relationship between two variables such as speed and gas mileage, and explain their results to the class. A supporting technology that I added to the list is a document camera. Students will be able to share their written work via the document camera while they are presenting their results to the class. Strategies associated with this part of the lesson are mostly student-centered such as student participation and collaboration, and class discussion, but I have also added another student centered strategy, a short presentation to allow students to communicate to their peers. The presentation meets NETS-S2, which is “collaborate and interact with peers.”  

Lesson Plan: http://illuminations.nctm.org/Lesson.aspx?id=2459

Technology Integration Matrix: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsoaTIT87eE1dGEtOGJQMWpTc0hhcWF5ZjZadDZHb3c&usp=sharing