The Department of Mathematics & Statistics would like to welcome:
Hwa Young Lee, University of Georgia at Athens, on Wednesday, December 9th, at 11:00 am in SCP 229
Title: Constructions of Coordinate Systems: Four Ninth Graders
Abstract: Coordinate systems are often used as representational tools for reasoning with mathematical concepts throughout secondary school mathematics. However, little focus is given to high school students’ constructions of coordinate systems and how they use coordinate systems in their reasoning. Thus, research is needed to understand how these students reason about and with coordinate systems. I consider two distinct yet related uses of coordinate systems. The first use is to organize space by establishing a reference system and for the purpose of locating points within the system. The second use is to coordinate sets of quantities by establishing a product space using geometrical objects such as lines and points. In this presentation, I will share data from a two-year teaching experiment with four ninth grade students during which I investigated their constructions of coordinate systems to organize space. Through that data, I will present the features of the coordinate systems the students constructed and the differences in these students’ perspectives that I observed. Finally, I will discuss educational implications and future research directions.