Daily Summaries

Danette Leachman, Reporter Danette wrote summaries of our activites each day.

Day One

Today was the first day of the "Using Internet and Geometry Forum" Workshop. Steve started the morning with Connections, where we stayed quiet and tried to focus on the week to come. Then he filled us in on how the Internet started,how the Geometry forum started, what they do, and some basic functions that are commonly used on them. After that, everyone got to learn hands-on how to send and get mail on email. That was probably the most exciting moment of the day when everyone checked their mail and realized that they had replies already!

After lunch, everyone wanted to check their mail again, but we had to press on. The next topic was a quick introduction to Geometer's SketchPad. Annie gave the class a problem to work, and each group seemed to find a different approach to the problem.

The last subject of the day was NewsGroups. Each member of the group got to read articles and post their own biographies. It was amazing to see what kind of information was available at our fingertips.

Each participant came away today eager to see what is in store for tomorrow. We learned so much today, but we know that there is so much more left!

Day Two

Well, Day 2 of Berry '94 Using Internet and Geometry Forum started off great. All of the participants were anxious to get on line and research for their group projects. In Connections, some participants expressed how grateful they were that they were able to attend this workshop and how glad they were that "The Crew" is so patient. After that, FTP was introduced, and then Gophering. With each new piece of knowledge, the group got more excited about the expanding possibilities that they had. They found seemingly endless resources, and when they were given time for breaks and for dinner, some still didn't want to leave their computers.

The only frustrating part of the day came when it took 20-30 minutes just to get connected, but all things considered, it was a productive, educationg day.

Tomorrow, the agenda includes MOSAIC. And we press on to expand our horizons.

Day Three

Day 3 here at the Berry '94 "Using Internet and Geometry Forum" workshop was even more exciting than the first 2 days. (After a storm that caused temporary loss of power and some other difficulties with phone lines) we were introduced to Mosaic, a wonderful way of using the World Wide Web. WWW is not only easy to use, but also encompasses Gopher and FTP.

In the afternoon, Dr. Susan Ross led the class in an activity that uses NCTM standards by connecting algebra and geometry. We also discussed how things learned this week can be taken back to the classrooms in the high schools.

Things are really coming together to build a firm foundation of resources that we can access. Everyone has learned a great deal.

(Just to demonstrate the dedication of these teachers, Walter and Annette Brooks, who are participants, celebrated their 25th anniversary today, with us! :-))

Day Four

Much of today's time was spent with the participants working on the group projects that they will be presenting tomorrow. They really got into it because now they can use: email, news, gopher, ftp, and the Web. We did do some learning, though. We learned how to make our own hotlists and home pages on Mosaic. We also drew our own images on sketchpad and added them to our home pages.

Annie Fetter led us in a 3-D Stella Octangula manipulative activity in which the class was put into pairs and discovered different relationships between certain solids. The conjectures that were made were extremely interesting. We also saw a video showing the use of the Stella Octangla materials.

Day Five

Today was the last day :-( of BERRY 94 *Using Internet and Geometry Forum* Workshop. The first half of the day was spent with the groups presenting their projects.

Project 1 (Walter Brooks, Martha Carter, Kris Fitzgerald, and Trish Herndon) was on Total Solar Eclipses. They found data on the last and the next total solar eclipses, such as the speed of the moon*s shadow on the earth and the width of the path of the shadow. They found many resources including NASA experts, and maps that had been posted in the news groups.

Project 2 (Annette Brooks, Linda Connally, Larue Huckaby, and Julie Pollard) explored Soil Erosion. They recieved information on Internet about books to use, the different types of soil erosion (coastal, riverbed, etc.), and contouring programs.

Project 3 (Becky Joslin, Bev Millians, Jim Morgan, and Paul Myers) was a Baseball Project. By sending inquiries through email and newsgroups, they got information on the histories and dimensions of baseball stadiums around the U.S.

They all came up with interesting activities that students could do with these projects. They also had questions and problems that the participants could work. (To see more details on the projects, URL is http://mathforum.org/berry94/berry.html.(Underconstruction as of 7/1/94)).

After lunch, everyone logged on to netcom to change their passwords. Then we learned how to take it all home and wrapped up the workshop. Everyone was anxious to be able to use what they learned at home. We all decided that we would definitely benifit from this, and that we would all have to keep in touch.

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 The Math Forum is a research and educational enterprise of the Goodwin College of Professional Studies.The Math Forum is a research and educational enterprise of the Goodwin College of Professional Studies.

A. Fetter
July, 1994