Math Facts Approaches 600,000 Correct Student Responses

I was creating some statistics from data at Math Facts this afternoon and realized that there are 600,000 correct student responses to math fact questions so I decided that again it was time to crunch some numbers.

Statistics:
Accuracy of student responses 87.1%
732,620 addition and multiplication problems solved.
638,347 addition and multiplication problems solved correctly.

Multiplication:
464742 multiplication problems solved at 87.51% accuracy.
Average time to correctly respond to a question was 2.049 seconds.
Fastest response times: 0.05 seconds to 2 × 1 and 0.062 seconds to 1 × 1

Addition:
267878 addition problems solved at 86.48% accuracy.
Average time to correctly respond to a question was 2.692 seconds.
Fastest response times: 0 seconds to 1+2, 0.116 seconds to 1+5.

Note that some of these statistics include times when students goof around and try to complete the activity as quickly as possible not paying attention to accuracy at all. But this is a very small percentage overall.

Observations:
I find it interesting that students respond on average about 0.5 seconds slower to addition problems than multiplication. Also it is interesting that the accuracy of the addition is 1% less than that of multiplication.

Graphing Multiple Inequalities Using Two Variables.

First graph each equation as explained in my previous post but only shade lightly. Next determine if the problem is asking for the intersection (and) or union (or).
If it is an intersection then the solution for the system of two or more equations is only where all of the graphs overlap.
If it is a union it is where any of the shading is located.

Be careful of infinite solutions and no solutions.

For example: Graph the equations y > 3x - 2 and y < x + 2.
First graph y > 3x - 2.

Since, this is a greater than equation like to make a little arrow pointing up indicating which side of the line will be shaded.

Now graph y < x + 2

Again, I like to make little arrow indicating which side of the line the shading is on.

Now shade where both lines are.

Give it a try.

Moodle XML Grading Assistant

I just finished writing a new web app that can save you some time, the Moodle XML Grading Assistant. The Moodle XML Grade Assistant allows you to quickly create an XML (or csv) file that can be imported into Moodle. Here is a list of the features:

Step 1

• Simple to use 
• Quick Fill. Fill in the same value for all student.
• You can bookmark your class roster so that you do not have to type it in every time. 
• Once grade values have been entered that can be modified. 
• iPod/iPhone compatible (with easy enter number pad)
• Optimized tab strokes. 
• Blank grades will not be over written.

Instructions:

First you will need a list of student ID numbers. The easiest way to get this is to do a gradebook export to either Open Office, Excel, or csv format.

Step 2

Next make sure that all assignments that you want to grade have and ID number. The fastest way to enter these is through the calculations link of one of the categories in the grade book. You cannot modify them there but you can see what they are and enter them.

Go to http://aschool.us/m/g/ and enter your roster with one line per student. First enter the student's ID number followed by a comma and their name. Note that their name is only for your reference while interacting with the web page. When you are finished click next.

Step 3:

If you are satisfied with your class roster you can bookmark it so that you don't have to type it in again. Nothing is saved on the server it is all encoded in the URL. Now enter the ID number for an assignment and points possible for the assignment. Note that the points possible is only for your reference. Click next. 

To enter the scores simply type in the number. Pressing tab will move you to the next save button and then the next text box. The number pads are for easy entry while using a touch screen device.

If you need to go back and modify a score the simply click the assignment ID at the bottom of the page, change your value and click save.

When are finished click download. You will be prompted for a place to save the file. Next go to Moodle and import the file from your grade book menu.

Your data is temporarily saved on the server while you are working on it. Pressing the reset link at the bottom of the the page will clear out all of the data from the server.

Future:

If I see that people are interested in this I'll enable the email feature so that you can truly enter your grades from your portable device. Currently you can enter them but it makes it pretty hard to save them from the portable device.

History:

One of my frustrations with Moodle is the ability to quickly enter grades into the grade book. You can import CSV files but that takes a while because you have to match up all of the titles manually. This could still save time if you a have a large class but my classes tend to be small. Next I looked into the XML import option but that wasn't very helpful because it was so hard to edit and add information. 

Xournal for Windows

Xournal is a note taking program that I've been using on Linux for several years and has finally been ported to Windows. This is great for those of us that work in hybrid environments. Thanks Dirk for posting your work and thanks Denis for making Xournal. Here are the directions of what Dirk did to get Xournal working on windows (http://dirkgerrits.com/2009/10/28/xournal-on-windows/). Now you can download the binary and simply extract the zip archive and double click the exe to run. I didn't even have to install it (download Xournal). Xournal is similar to Microsoft Windows Journal or to other alternatives such as Jarnal, Gournal, and NoteLab.

I quickly test the software on Windows Vista and the PDF annotation and export appear to work fine. It even opened the annotations that I made in Linux and stored in my DropBox. This is great since I've been wanting to be able to open my files at school from home and vice-versa.

Math Facts Statistics Update

A few facts about ASchool.us/math

• Students have answered over 920,000 math fact questions since ASchool.us/math Facts was launched in January 1, 2009. 
• 9 students have solved over 20,000 problems.
• The average student has solved 5,701 problems.
• 2010-2011 school year statistics
• 106 students solved over 477,572 problems during the school year.
• One student has solved over 23,000 problems during the school year.
• 11 students solved over 10,000 problems.
• The average student solved 4823 problems.
• 8 locations that are actively using ASchool.us/math
• Spangle, Washington
• Caldwell, Idaho
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Palmer, Alaska
• Dillingham, Alaska
• Juneau, Alaska
• Sitka, Alaska

ASchool.us/Math has saved many teachers time and enhanced students abilities. To join sign up for a free trial account now. You can learn more about ASchool.us/Math at the at ASchool.us/Math website.

Random Group Generator Update

This morning I was able to finish an update for the Random Group Generator. Now you can choose to divide the groups based on the number of groups you want or the maximum size of each group.

First select the mode, then enter the size larger than 1. If you selected max group size then you have the choice between two modes: maximum group size and balanced group size.

The maximum mode makes sure that every group is filed to capacity before filling the next group.  For example if you have 16 students and wanted a maximum of 6 students per group. There would be 2 groups of 6 and 1 groups of 4.

The balanced mode makes sure that the group size fairly equal in size. For example if you have 16 students and wanted a maximum of 6 students per group. There would be 1 group of 6 and 2 groups of 5.

Color wheel in the classroom.

In science class we are studying about light and color. The video clips below demonstrate a simple way for students to experiment with different ways to create color and how they mix together. The first demonstration used Inkscape (www.inkscape.org) and allows the student to mix the colors to create new colors whereas the second video uses Gimp (www.gimp.org) and has the computer mix the colors for you using layer modes of addition and subtraction.

Inkscape Color Wheel:

If students have been introduced to Inkscape and follow the process shown in the video it should take about 10 minutes to finish.

Here is a basic outline of the steps.

1. Create a circle.
2. Change the color to red.
3. Select the circle and duplicate it (ctl-d), then move it to the right so that the two circles overlap.
4. Change the color of the new circle to green.
5. Select the new circle and duplicate it (ctl-d), then move it down so that all three circles overlap.
6. Chance the color of the new circle to blue.
   
   Now you should have the three primary colors red, green, and blue.
   
7. Select all (ctl-a) of the circles and duplicate (ctrl-d) them twice.
8. Select to of the circle the red and green circles, by clicking the first circle red circle and pressing shift to select the green circle, with both circles selected select intersection from the paths menu. Now you should have a new shape similar to that of a football. If you can't see it raise it to the top. 
9. Next change the color mixture to have all red and all green.
10. Repeat the process for both of the other overlaps. 
11. Lower the circles you create to the back if necessary.
12. Now select the three football like shapes in the center and duplicate them. 
13. With the shapes still selected again select intersection from the paths menu. 
14. Now change the color to have red, green, and blue values set to full on.

Now you have a color wheel.

I thought that this exercise was pretty cool but the computer can also do it by itself. Check out the activity using Gimp shown below.

Gimp Color Wheel:

You should be able to duplicate the Inkscape activity using other vector drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator.

You should be able to duplicate the Gimp activity using Adobe Photoshop or any other program that has layers with modes of addition and subtraction.

Note that both Inkscape and Gimp are available for Windows, Mac, & Linux platforms.