Module+7

My content area is Algebra I. In this course we study the relationship of two variables. When these two variables depend on each other and are related by a constant rate of change, we call the relationship a linear equation. The following problem has to do with using linear equations to compare cell phone plans.
 * __Janet’s Info:__**

__Problem__: Jasmine is trying to find the cell phone plan that will work best for her. Her parents say she talks too much on the phone and tell her she cannot get a plan with more than 500 minutes. They also tell her that they’ll pay for the plan but that she has to pay for the minutes she goes over. She looks up on the internet and finds out that AT&T and Verizon offer a plan of 450 minutes per month for $39.99 while T Mobile offers a plan of 500 minutes per month for $39.99. AT&T charges a fee of $.21per minute for every minute you go over your allotted amount. Verizon charges a fee of $.23 per minute for every minute you go over your allotted amount. As a favor to their customers, Verizon shuts off the phone if the customer goes more than 100 minutes over their plan. T Mobile charges $.37 per minute for every minute you go over your allotted amount of minutes. If Jasmine usually talks on the phone for 650 minutes each month, which plan would be cheapest for her? The student population includes 8th and 9th grade students who understand the relationship between the independent and dependent variable in a linear equation. These students have basic skills that enable them to write equations given real world situations. The 8th grade students are considered “honors” so they tend to have more motivation than the 9th grade students.

I love this problem. It is a problem that many teens face, if their parents let them choose their cell plan. I guess the problem is ... will she cut down on her cell phone use? Does she have to pay the extra monthly dues or does the parents only allow her to use 500? Are they only to calculate to 500 minutes or the full 650? CR The problem is only interesting if she goes over her minutes.........if not T Mobile would be the obvious choice. I'll add that she has to pay for any extra minutes used but her parents will pay for the plan. Yes they should take into account the full 650 minutes then they will see that Verizon will only allow her to talk for 550 min and they'll have to think about the fact that Jasmine will be mad that they shut her phone off but it won't cost her as much............I want them to think through the different situations.

Perhaps you could extend the problem to have Jasmine derive a linear equation that she could use to solve her own problem but that she could share with her friends on facebook so they could also solve their own problem about phone use. Chantel raises some excellent additional givens that will contribute to the problem. dm

Janet- good problem and I think you made the right corrections. This problem would be interesting to any teenager that has a cell phone and gets in trouble often with parents for going over minutes or using too many texts. Nice job picking something that will interest the student. -JaNae Janet- I might look at family plans as part of the equation. //**Chantel's Content Area, Problem, and Audience**//

//__Content Area__//: HTML/CSS

__//Real World Problem//__: Each month, Biz Blizzard Magazine, headquartered din San Antonio, Texas, publishes articles of interest to middle-level managers. Maria Jones, editor of the magazine, has asked for your help putting one of this month's lead stories on the magazine's Web page. After meeting with Maria, and creating a layout, you have been asked to further develop the Web page.


 * The file with the magazine article is biz.doc.
 * The background image will be cloth.gif.
 * The logo will appear sideways on the right of the article.
 * Teal will background the text and logo.
 * Footer needs to be present.

__//Audience://__ counselor or the students first choice for class is full. || I changed my problem Tuesday morning. I decided that the problem I had, I did not like very much.
 * Target Audience: || Teenagers between the age of 16-18 who want to learn to format HTML/CSS ||
 * Entry Skills: || Learners who know basic HTML/CSS ||
 * Previous experience: || Learners who have created single column web sites using HTML/CSS ||
 * Attitudes: || Learners who are comfortable with the basic skills ||
 * Motivation: || Learners usually self-select to take this class, but sometimes students are placed in the class by the

Chantel-so if I understand this correctly, the students are basically putting an already written article on a web page. This problem has a few specific parameters but does it really make the students analyze and think outside the box or does it only include a few steps? I've never made a web page so maybe I'm oversimplifying it...my suggestion is just to make sure there is some rigor in the problem.

Chantel- I have never made a web page either so I hope my comments are helpful. Have you included enough info for the problem to interest the students? Oh it looks like you changed your problem :) This seems like a good problem. -JaNae

Chantel Great Problem! I would be more specific about what part of the web page they are developing for the problem. -Julie **__ Janet’s Info: __** My content area is Algebra I. In this course we study the relationship of two variables. When these two variables depend on each other and are related by a constant rate of change, we call the relationship a linear equation. The following problem has to do with using linear equations to compare cell phone plans. __ Problem __ : Jasmine is trying to find the cell phone plan that will work best for her. Her parents say she talks too much on the phone and tell her she cannot get a plan with more than 500 minutes. She looks up on the internet and finds out that AT&T and Verizon offer a plan of 450 minutes per month for $39.99 while T Mobile offers a plan of 500 minutes per month for $39.99. AT&T charges a fee of $.21per minute for every minute you go over your allotted amount. Verizon charges a fee of $.23 per minute for every minute you go over your allotted amount. As a favor to their customers, Verizon shuts off the phone if the customer goes more than 100 minutes over their plan. T Mobile charges $.37 per minute for every minute you go over your allotted amount of minutes. If Jasmine usually talks on the phone for 650 minutes each month, which plan would be cheapest for her? The student population includes 8th and 9th grade students who understand the relationship between the independent and dependent variable in a linear equation. These students have basic skills that enable them to write equations given real world situations. The 8th grade students are considered “honors” so they tend to have more motivation than the 9th grade students. =**JaNae's Module 7:**=

**Entry Skills:** Students who have a basic knowledge of political systems and the role of political systems in a country.
 * Student population **: 9th grade World Geography class
 * Previous Experience:** Students will have had previous experience talking and discussing political systems in their U.S History class.
 * Attitudes:** Students will be more informed about the country they live in and the government.
 * Motivation:** Students are required to take this course in order to graduate from high school.

//Standard 4 // : Students will understand how human activities shape the earth's surface. //Objective 3//: Investigate various forms of governance and how they affect peoples and landscapes. -Compare and contrast political systems within world regions. -Determine the role of government in contemporary and historical world issues
 * Content Area: **World Geography

I want to explain a little about my content area. Objective 3 of Standard 4 is where I discuss the differences in the political systems of the world as well as the different political parties within in our own political system. I think this is a very important part of geography and helps students understand certain events that took place in history and presently why there are various problems around the world. The following problem addresses the different political systems in the world and helps the students understand how different political systems affect a country and its people.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">There were many events that led up to World War II. Many different countries were seeing new leaders emerge into their political systems and some of these leaders were making big and interesting changes to their governments. Some of the political changes that were made during this time in history have affected some of these countries still, decades after. Government plays a very important role in the functioning of a nation and the loyalty of its citizens. As a class we will determine what political systems were evident in the allied and axis countries during World War II, what characteristics they had and how that led into the war. What effects are these countries having now because of those political systems? As we are going into a new election this coming year what should we, as citizens of the United States, be looking for in a leader? How can understanding different political systems help us make informed decisions when we vote and make decisions in our own communities?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Complex real world problem: **

WOW! I wish I had you as a teacher. I might of actually liked the class. I am just wondering how long it will take you demonstrate this? CR It depends on previous knowledge that the students have. I know that this could be a longer lesson however, it is helping them with the important ideas of government. As you can see from dm's comments I might need to narrow it down. I agree that it's kind of a broad problem narrowing it down will help the students learn more specific skills.

You have posed many important and interesting questions but you have not given learners a specific problem to solve. There are many problems that could be solved if we better understood political systems. Some ideas might be to give learners a speech by a political leader and based on their understanding of political systems critique the speech. For example it has been popular for the last couple of years for certain politicians who oppose President Obama to call him a socialist. What if you took one of these speeches and had learners try to tease apart fact from fiction, how is a given policy socialist? and how are some accepted institutions in the US socialist, or are they? etc. dm

JaNae- I agree with Dr. Merrill you have a lot of interesting questions and you're very good at having group discussions but you need to use the energy from that discussion to solve a specific problem. Maybe you could look at one aspect of the presidential candidates.......perhaps their view on education and what they propose to do. Then you could have students make their own platform on educational reform. This could work for any area of interest for the student. I think if they had to come up with their own political platform that was valid, it would push them to study political systems and then apply what they learn.

I'm in the process of changing my whole problem... it was WAY too broad. Thanks for your comments everyone!!

JaNae - It is broad but you have good ideas. Just make sure as you go through the modules, you remember you can tie all them all together. -Julie

**Julie’s Content Area, Real World Problem, and Student Population**
My content area, library science, is expanding past the traditional librarian roles of cataloging books, helping teachers purchase and select materials to support their curriculum, and supporting TV/VCR setups, overhead projectors, and other older technologies. In addition to these things we now help students learn how to appropriately use State Library Database materials, Microsoft Office Products, and the internet. We also provide technological support for the entire staff and student populations.

I have been the librarian at Bonneville High School for seven years. In those seven years, I have found that many students don’t understand how to utilize classification systems, such as the Dewey Decimal system, and they struggle with independently learning how to use and locate books and technological resources within the realm of their local or school libraries. They want somebody to do it for them. Many just walk over to the shelves and just randomly start looking, usually in the wrong section. Librarians always have to be on the watch for students that look lost. Having knowledge of the Dewey Decimal system, and figuring out the setup of their current library system and the resources they have, will provide the students with a vast amount of learning materials that will help them learn throughout their lives. Therefore my real world problem is how do we find and locate books and resources at our school or local library?

I work with student’s grade nine thru twelve. I also work with a special education population that is retained in the high school past the traditional four years until they are twenty one. The majority of our students are Caucasian, however we have a significant Hispanic population that has to be considered when selecting materials. In addition to the students I have sixty teachers on staff and 18 support professionals that are all served thru our library. The teachers are students in learning what book and technological resources we have, how to find and utilize them, and they also come for instruction in how to use personal web page tools, online resources, and Microsoft Office products. Therefore my student population has a wide range of skills and abilities that has to be considered when selecting materials and teaching them how to use the library.

A big audience and varying skills makes your job hard. A worth while and very true to life problem. Good Job Julie. CR

Good problem. Can you make it more specific. You have identified a problem class, locating books but not a portrayal from this problem class. Next week you will be asked to do a demonstration of a portrayal of your problem. This assignment will require you to be more specific. You will also be asked to find a progression of specific problem portrayals. This will also require you to be more specific. dm

Julie-I feel that this skill is very important also! People need to use local libraries more especially when they aren't in school anymore and it would be nice if they were self-sufficient in finding the books they need. Perhaps, to make your problem more specific you could put a story with it. For example: Jeremy's mom is really sick and has to stay at home in her bed for 6 months. He decides he'll go to the library and get some books for her to read. He easily finds some good fiction books but she isn't very interested in that so he sets out to find something more educational. What books should Jeremy get for his mom? Where would he find them?

Julie- I also had the same problem of not being more specific. I think if you narrow it down it will help your students. Putting a story with it is a good idea (Janet's idea). I do that a lot with my students and they love it. Keep up the good work. -JaNae