[OLPC-SF] Pilot update from the field

[Edward Cherlin]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 20:54, Cherry Withers <cwithers at ekindling.org> wrote:
> Thanks Christoph! Forwarding this to our team members in the Philippines. I
> unfortunately do not have an XO otherwise I would give you
> a quick feedback on whether it's a good fit for us. Been awhile since I've
> tried SoaS but will give it a shot again.

You can run much of Sugar on a number of different Linux distros, just
using the packages provided. You can also run Sugar in a Virtual
Machine. Instructions for both in the Wiki.

> My quick opinion though just from the description is that it might be too
> close to being a worksheet/drill sheet substitute, but it's a whole lot of
> assumption from my part. So far our teachers in Lubang are excited about
> getting the kids to explore and produce learning artifacts which is a big
> deviation from their methodology that they've been doing in the past so we
> want to keep encouraging that. In our past survey, class time seems to be
> taken up by too much worksheet/ drill time especially in Math.
>
> One of the things that may help with a Math activity for us, especially come
> September when they are going to learn fractions would be some sort of
> "electronic" manipulative akin to Cuisenaire rods?

Pie slices! Each size (halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths,
eighths, maybe twelfths) a different color. Then you can distribute
fifths to see that 3/5 goes into 3 circles five times, and so on, and
work out the "invert and multiply" rule yourself. After the more
elementary operations, of course.

Or you can do much the same just with Cuisenaire rods laid end to end.
Five threes are just as long as three fives.

> Where they can visually
> see and manipulate different artifacts to intuitively learn fractions. You
> may already have thought of this on this activity.
>
> @Mitch, would you be able to go over this activity with our Math teacher
> before you leave this week?
>
> @Tessa, could you possibly test this out to see if it fits with our 4th
> grade curriculum particularly come September?
>
> Thanks again!
> ---Cherry
>
> On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Christoph Derndorfer
> <e0425826 at student.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Cherry,
>>
>> the topic of lack of activities for learning / practicing Mathematics
>> has come up repeatedly over the past few years.
>>
>> Here in Austria some people at Graz University of Technology in
>> collaboration with the teachers of the Austrian OLPC pilot project have
>> been working on an activity called "ReckonPrimer" for practicing basic
>> Maths in the past year. It's still a bit crude in terms of the usability
>> and has a couple of other issues but it's generally well thought out and
>> quite popular with the pupils here in Austria.
>>
>> You can download the .xo file (which isn't based on the very latest
>> code!) at http://www.ist.tugraz.at/projects/isac/rp/ReckonPrimer-6.xo,
>> find more information about the project at
>> http://www.ist.tugraz.at/projects/isac/rp/ or access the code at
>> http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/rp
>>
>> In case you do try it out or have teachers use it I'd be very interested
>> in your feedback as the project will be continued once university starts
>> again in October and I'm currently in somewhat of a brain-storming
>> period for this.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Christoph
>>
>> Am 16.07.2010 21:49, schrieb Cherry Withers:
>> > 5) Concern was raised for lack of activities for Math. Come September
>> > they need to be covering Fractions.
>>
>> --
>> Christoph Derndorfer
>> co-editor, www.olpcnews.com
>> e-mail: christoph at olpcnews.com
>
>
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>



-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://www.earthtreasury.org/