Brief Description

Students will use the Internet to find out about vectors. They will investigate how to add vectors in two and three dimensions, using several methods. They will learn how to do the inner (dot) product and cross product and know what the solution means. Meets Arizona State Technology Standard 5.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 5T-P1. Develop a research strategy to find accurate, relevant, appropriate electronic information sources
• 5T-P2. Investigate and apply expert systems (e.g., search engines and intelligent agents)

• NCTM: Number and Operations: Develop an understanding of properties of, and representations for, the addition and multiplication of vectors. Develop fluency in operations with real numbers and vectors.

Academic

• Students will use the research to answer questions about vectors.
• Students will justify why the site they found was most helpful.
• Students will apply some of the research to questions posed.
• Students will assess what they have found out about vectors.

• Students will use Boolean Logic and advanced search features to research the Internet about vectors.

The students need to have knowledge of how to use Boolean logic and perform advanced searches using the Internet.

Materials

• Student Handout
• Assessment Rubric
• Computer with access to the Internet

Reach/gifted students: These students can look for applets on the Internet, which will help other students be more successful in seeing what vectors are and how they can be used to simulate adding vectors.

SEI (Sheltered English Immersion) students: Teacher or another student will read through the question(s) as needed and explain what is being asked to find. These students can sit next to or be grouped with strong readers/Spanish speakers. They can be given fewer questions to research.

Special Education Students:  Teacher or another student will read through the question(s) as needed and explain what is being asked to find. These students can sit next to or be grouped with strong readers. They can be given fewer questions to research.

Procedures

• Teacher will give each student a handout of the questions to be answered.
• Students should use Boolean logic and advanced searches to find sites about vectors.
• They should use these Internet sites to answer the questions in the handout.(approximately 1 hour).
• Students will use the self-assessment handout to evaluate what they found out about vectors and what they need to have more instruction on.
• Students will share their ideas about the best sites and any applets (interactive programs used to help visualize graphing and adding vectors) they found to be useful.

Self-assessment rubric. Teacher will use these to evaluate what and how much about vectors will be taught.

Teacher Name: Ann Faulkner
Site: AHS
Date Submitted: April 5, 2003