Abstract
In an effort to alleviate some of the challenges middle school students experience when learning how to use new tools in the classroom, we provided a technology training session during our summer academy for middle school students, Junior Seahawk. Students registered for the summer academy participated in a day long technology training session using two innovative tools, TI-Nspire and InspireData. This manuscript explains how the tools were presented to a group of middle school students to help them develop an interest in science, mathematics, and technology. The technology training sessions are one of many techniques of teaching the Junior Seahawk participants how to use technology as a tool as well as providing resources to prepare them for the 21st century.
Introduction
Many middle school students appear to be well versed on all of the latest gadgets and games. But, when it comes to using educational tools to learn mathematics, science and technology concepts they seem to face many difficulties with connecting the technology to learning those concepts. Data analysis and the use of graphs are two concepts that middle school students struggle with understanding and interpreting (Konold & Higgins, 2003; Capraro, Kulm, & Capraro, 2005). The use of technology has been shown to help improve student success in mathematics and science, but learning to effectively use the technology can be a further hindrance to their learning (Kaput, 1992). To help the participants in a middle grades summer program, instructors introduced them to two innovative products, TI-Nspire and InspireData, during a mini-workshop. Even though these products have similar names, the two are very different tools. However, both can be used to help middle school students learn how to apply data analysis and graphing skills and become proficient at using technologies as tools for learning.
Previous research indicates that middle level learners have difficulty gaining conceptual understanding of the meaning of data found in databases and graphical representations (Wu & Wong, 2007). According to Brasell (1990), many students are exposed to limited types of graphs, tend to misunderstand their purpose as related to the data, and are unable to communicate their meanings. The two technologies, TI-Nspire and InspireData seem to be a good start to address these issues due to their abilities to dynamically link different representations of data. We were familiar with the use of the tools by classroom teachers and sought to determine how they could help further develop middle school students graphing and data analysis skills. Our overarching goal for using these technologies was to enhance these middle school students' critical thinking, data literacy, and graphing skills. We began our study by formally introducing the tools to the students during a technology-training segment during our summer day camp. Future sessions of the camp are scheduled to allow students to use the technologies to complete projects and further develop their mathematical and data analysis skills.
Junior Seahawk Academy
A mathematics, science, and technology day camp for middle school children, ranging in ages 11-14, is offered by the Watson School of Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington . The annual summer camp “seeks to improve the mathematics and science skills of middle school students from underrepresented groups while engaging them in activities that will help motivate them to be successful in school” (Junior Seahawk Academy, 2008, p. 1). Junior Seahawk Academy participants are from diverse ethnic and cultural communities that have low literacy rates and rarely attend college or enter in jobs that require advanced mathematics and science skills. The participants often do not perform well in their mathematics and science classes and rarely participate in academic summer camps. Through the efforts of this program, participants are able to engage in hands-on activities using resources to prepare them for the 21 st century workforce. One of the main goals of the camp is to increase participants' academic achievement which will hopefully encourage them to attend college and select careers in mathematics, science, or technology.
A special technology session was held during the camp to introduce students to technologies to help them better understand the principles of graphing and data analysis. During the summer of 2008, camp participants were introduced to two innovative technologies: TI-Nspire and InspireData. The TI-Nspire is a newly developed mathematics and science handheld learning device from Texas Instruments and InspireData is a software program developed by Inspiration, INC. These tools were presented to the Junior Seahawk participants during the technology training session of the academy. The goal for the technology segment was to spark the students' interest in using the technologies and to also expose them to a new way of learning mathematics and science. To determine the impact of the training on students' interest in these technologies and its usefulness in helping them develop graphing and data literacy skills we chose to have students complete a brief survey about their experiences using the tools. Observations and informal conversations provided additional information on the students' thoughts and views regarding the use of the tools and their impact on their learning about graphs and databases.
Innovative Technologies
TI-Nspire by Texas Instruments
The TI-Nspire mathematics and science learning handheld technology empowers students to learn mathematical concepts across five dynamically linked visual representations. When students can see mathematics in different ways, they are able to broaden their critical thinking skills and discover meaningful real-world connections. The TI-Nspire allows students to see and explore algebraic, graphical, geometric, numeric and written representations of the same problem. Moreover, any change made in one representation shows the related change in the other representations.
The TI-Nspire has several unique features, including the Grab-and-Move feature which allows students to make changes to a graph or data in real time and observe mathematical relationships and the impact of those changes. Research has shown vast improvements in middle grades students' knowledge occurs when students work in a dynamic, technology-based environment (Ellington, 2003; Rochelle et al., 2000). In a dynamic environment, less emphasis is placed on the symbolic, procedural aspects of mathematics and more emphasis is placed on the interaction between varieties of representations that focus on the conceptual aspects. Students are more interactive with the mathematics in dynamic environments as opposed to being told the knowledge they are expected to obtain. These environments provide them the opportunities to be able to see how the change in one representation affects another and to make connections between various mathematical representations.
