New Digital Math Textbook Incorporates Inquiry-Based Learning
A new digital math curriculum for middle and high
school
students is designed to encourage inquiry-based learning and is aligned with Common
Core
State Standards.
Discovery
Education has introduced its Math
Techbook, a
digital textbook that will support math education for middle school
students as
well as high school Algebra I and II and Geometry. The comprehensive
digital
course material includes Common Core-aligned content along with
interactive
learning concepts, videos, digital tools and game-like activities, all
intended
to follow the discover-practice-apply cycle instructional approach.
Tools available to students include a graphing
calculator,
geometry tool, whiteboard tool and a matrix solver. There is also a
student
dashboard that gives students themselves the opportunity to monitor
their own
progress in real time.
"This digital textbook immediately engages students
in
instruction and provides all the content and tools I need to create a
modern
digital learning environment that fosters deeper, lasting understanding
of math
concepts," said Jeffery Baugus, math department chair and dean of
students at
Woodlawn Beach Middle School in Gulf Breeze, FL.
For teachers, there is also a real-time dashboard
along with
notes, tips for classroom discussion and instructions about how to
demonstrate mathematical
practices.
The Math Techbook features formative assessment tools
throughout the course designed lo help prepare students for high-stakes
assessments.
Also for teachers there is an embedded, customized
professional development program that not only helps them use the Math
Techbook
with their students, but also gives them strategies to engage students
generally in inquiry-based instruction, math investigations and
collaborative,
real-world problem solving that can be used on any device and in any
classroom
configuration.
The Math Techbook is the latest addition to a series
of
similar digital textbooks that Discovery Education has created in recent
years,
all in alignment with Common Core Standards.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.