Gizmo: Toy Factory

I chose this gizmo because the game looked really cute and fun! I love this gizmo because you choose the animals you want and then the gizmo can show the fraction of bunnies, monkeys, and giraffes. It will even simplify the fraction for you! Another reason I like this gizmo is because it has an advanced level that can be used for more difficult lessons. That level incorporates colors and asks questions concerning how many colors and toys can be put in a fraction.

I would definitely use this gizmo to supplement introductory and advanced lessons for fractions because it is visual, colorful, and has aspects of a game that I think students would love!

Gizmo: Finding Factors with Area Models

I picked this gizmo because it is great for introducing factors using factor trees and area models. The area models are great because if you have a composite number there can be many ways to make a square or rectangle. I think it would be great if you could show prime number's area models to show why they are prime, but I understand why they do not show them.

I like how you can choose which number to factor and I like how the squares can be changed by adjusting which numbers are width and length. It is also cool how the prime factorization is shown at the bottom of the factor tree side.

I would use this gizmo in my classroom to introduce prime and composite numbers, as well as factoring. I think that the area models are a great addition to the gizmo to visualize what factors make up the selected number.

Gizmo: Factor Trees

I chose this gizmo because it looked like a good way of practicing prime factoring composite numbers. The gizmo randomly selects a composite number and the students pick factors of that number to find the prime factors. You can work on multiple prime factorizations and compare them to possibly use for finding the greatest common factor.

I think I would use this in my classroom because the gizmo can be used for many different lessons, like greatest common factor for example. I also think that it can be a great tool for reinforcing what a prime number and a composite number is.

Gizmo: Order of Operations

We did not go into order of operations in class so I thought this gizmo would be great to refresh my memory of this topic. The gizmo randomly gives students a problem with various operations inside. When you hover over an addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or exponent sign the gizmo will tell you what that sign will do. If you click on an operation that does not follow the order it will tell you so. Which is very good to enforce the order.

I really like this, though, I do think that it should display what the order of operations is in example problems then have the real round of problems. I would use this in my classroom, but I think it should be used at an intermediate level, just because the operations like exponents, parenthesis, and exponents outside the parenthesis can be very complicated for even sixth grade students.

Gizmo: Critter Count

I LOVED this gizmo as an introduction of multiplication. Students can pick and choose between what kind of critters they want and which method of multiplication they are represented. It is a great way of modeling repeated addition, in the leaves choice, and representing arrays, in the critter array choice. It is a fun and creative way of introducing multiplication!

It was very cool having the side of the gizmo show the multiplication problem numerically and also showing that arrays can use repeated addition. The group portion reinforced this. The count feature was really excellent because you knew there were 4 sets of 9. It then counted all four sets showing how they got the answer.

I would love to use this gizmo in my classroom! It is great for introducing two visualizations and easing the students into multiplication by connecting it to topics the learned previously, such as addition. I would love to find something that used division like this. 

Gizmo: Cargo Captain

This gizmo is another great for a maximum of three digit subtraction. It uses a space cargo ship and you have to fill up as many barrels as you want and lock them in place. It is also in a base 10 format so the way that it is set up isn't confusing to a child that hasn't used it before. It is great for teaching to regroup and reinforces place value as you "unload" the barrels to various planets. I also like how it shows you how many you have left when you have unloaded the barrels both visually in the ship, and numerically in the cargo status section.

Like the previous subtraction gizmo, I would like to see more than three digits for more advanced students. However, I do think that this is a great tool to model subtraction up to three digits without using base ten. I think I would use this gizmo in my classroom because it is very game-like and I think students would enjoy that. Also, again, because it reinforces place value and using "holds" as hundreds, "crates" as tens, and "single barrels" as ones.

Gizmo: Modeling Subtracting Decimals

The subtracting decimals gizmo was very interesting! I loved how you could adjust the place values that you used in the subtraction. It was very visual and I like how you can move the base 10 blocks and see on the side how much you have and how many you take away. It will also show the difference of how many blocks you took from the top and it will show the difference on the side where it has the numerical arithmetic. 

I would definitely use this in a lesson to model three digit subtraction with or without decimals. Although, I do wish that you could use more or less than 3 digit numbers. I do think that it is a good visual alternative if a classroom doesn't have base 10 manipulatives. However, you could use the base 10 blocks along with this if you have them.   

Gizmo: Introduction to Funtions

Could not do service learning this semester due to work conflicts, so gizmos it is! I chose this gizmo because it was relevant in unit one. I really liked this simple functions gizmo. It's a great tool for an introductory lesson. Also, I thought it was very cool how you could point arrows for the inputs to the outputs and then show you the ordered pairs and the graph along with it. It was good that the bottom of the gizmo showed what made them a function as well.

Something I would modify with this gizmo is to be able to point arrows and make ordered pairs that do not make a function, then have it explain why. If it did have this capability I might have missed it. However, I do think that I would use this in my classroom as an introductory lesson supplement, but with any lessons more complicated, probably not.

Service Learning Summary

This semester I was unable to do service learning do to work and other conflicts. However, I have learned a lot in this class this semester that I will share with you instead. At first when I took this class I thought it would be easy because I expected it to be re-learning math that I had already learned when I was in elementary school. It was the first day of class that I learned it would be more than simple elementary school math I would be learning. As a student who is not very good, nor has ever been very good at math I found this class to be very  challenging.

I feel that I have mastered many of the topics I have learned, but some, I still need to work on. Unit one and two were not very difficult for me because I was already confident in those areas. Base 10, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division were the main topics I knew I could do well in. In contrast, when we hit unit three's section on fractions, I found myself completely incompetent and felt lost through almost that whole section. It probably didn't help that my study buddy, Sheena, felt the same way. Fractions have always been very troubling for me, and even though it was a very visual and hands on section, I still feel horribly incompetent on the subject.

However, I did do pretty well in the beginning of unit three. GCF and LCM were very simple for me to grasp understanding of. Again, I should attribute this to my previous success in those areas. In this last section, unit four, I find it much easier to deal with. Converting between fractions, decimals, and percents is so much clearer to me. I really like the way we learned how to do this because the steps were very specific and not too lengthy for me to get confused.

The information I have learned in this class is very valuable to my path to becoming an elementary teacher. I still have a very long way to go on my understanding of some topics, but I believe that if I try harder, I will succeed. This semester has probably been my worst in college, but even if I have to retake this class and get a better grade, I will, because I know that when times got rough this semester in this class, I tended to get frustrated and give up. This class has been a learning experience outside of the knowledge I am expected to know by you, and I can just hope that if I apply myself for the rest of this semester, I can get through.