danaleeling

Day one was a course introduction. Day two opened with an overview of the preassessment results. This chewed up too much time and didn't leave time to have the students make a density calculation. Recommendation is to drop this review in future terms. Forgotten: 500 ml water bottle. Not forgotten but almost: a kilo of sugar. Wednesday hear included two 1000 ml Erlenmeyer flasks, a recently acquired 300 ml beaker, Silka papaya soap, ruler  mass balance, and the usual collection of rectangular blocks and cubes. The Silka would prove to a fail. Silka would come in at 88 grams, 2 grams under the packed mass. The lecture-demonstration followed the usual arc as seen in the board shots below. With the soap in the 300 ml beaker, water was added up to the 300 ml mark. The soap was sitting on the bottom of the beaker. Then the soap was removed. Reading the new mark was problematic. With a habit of overestimating volume, the error wa...

Monday week one was a brief course introduction, determining the attendance, and an introduction to Moodle and the textbook.  Wednesday opened with a review of the term start health and wellness survey . I then moved on to the chapter one slide deck but only made it through slide 23 of 36.  Because Friday was dedicated to measuring BMI, slides 24 to 36 were pushed back to Monday week two. Monday will open with a meditation and then finish the first slide deck prior to moving into chapter two in earnest.  The Tanita body composition scale, now over two decades old, is up front. The electrical socket there was too loose for the transformer prongs, but the electrical connectivity held. A tape measure was the only height measuring device. Heights were done in feet and inches, weight in pounds, because that is what the students actually know. One young man had gained two inches since his last height measurement, another had gained three inches. Had centimeters be...

Day one was a very brief introduction to the course and then the plants names oral exercise. This term pineapple was a stronger start as everyone knew this plant name in their own language. This also allowed a digression on etymology is the introducing source for a plant. Pweinaper demonstrates an English speaking introduction source for this plant. A large number of plants were brought this term from the house. Too many to be named. Each led to digressions that also introduced the concepts in the course. Loss of names, recollection of names once the name is heard again. The issues of having a mehn waii teach pwilidak Pohnpei. Thursday was tech Thursday and introduced iNaturalist. The class began with a brief introduction to the platform and the scientific nature of iNaturalist. Then a slide deck was used to help orient the students.  Following this a plant was photographed just outside the classroom and a live demonstration of the app in action was done us...

In my residential (face-to-face) section of MS 150 Statistics, the first chapter test occurs in class to provide an opportunity for me to assist the students should they have difficulties. Tests for chapters two and beyond are completed outside of class by the students. This mirrors the testing environment of the online section of the course where students complete all of the tests outside of a classroom. The tests in the course are set up in a Moodle learning management system. The tests allow a single attempt. With the tests online, they are open notes, open book. This also means that the taking of the tests is not monitored by me. The one test that I get to see is the first test, and only for students in the residential section of the course.  I rarely intervene during this first test, allowing the students to work the test as they might when completing a test outside of the classroom.  One of the students had the above on their computer. I paused and watched. The student s...

This term the assignment was altered to go beyond just milk chocolate or peanut M&Ms.  This term Yoshie proved to be the best source. A petty cash was not prepared. 30 bags cost $66, the receipt did not itemize the individual package costs. Petty cash is recommended for future runs. Skittles sour lists at 1.80 ounces Day one opened with a brief Moodle introduction and some hand waving coverage of the course. Textbook access was included. Milk chocolate M&Ms list at 1.69 ounces Weight in ounces was returned to the assignment as there was no online section. The Ohaus delivered third decimal place ounces.  This should provide more statistical examples to work with during the term. More examples and more meaningful examples. 

The August 2025 faculty workshop was structured as five days of morning sessions. The primary report on the workshop this term was produced in the form of a presentation . The Tuesday morning session was well attended. Attendance decreased with each day. The Friday session was for new instructors only. Tuesday afternoon I presented on Google Workspace. This presentation was a reworking of a presentation first put together in July 2022. The presentation was reworked again in August 2023. The presentation was then updated for an online presentation to non-instructional employees in July 2025. Non-instructional employees also attended a second session that focused on Google Forms . Further updates were made for a presentation to faculty in August 2025. Wednesday program assessment summaries. 

What does it mean to understand a mathematical concept? What constitutes knowing mathematics? How can one demonstrate the ability to engage in quantitative reasoning? What do we mean when we say we are teaching and learning math? How should math be taught? How should math be tested? Should math be taught in isolation, in a math class? Should math be taught in context, in non-math classes?  In this laboratory a system of abstract notation is taught without context. Just as symbols on a board. The notation is site swap notation mapped out linearly. Students usually quickly discern the pattern and are able to determine what should appear in subsequent sites. Once the class demonstrates mastery, then the illusion of understanding is taken away. Absent context, the mathematics has no meaning. The mathematics is no more useful than the quadratic formula - neither site swap nor the quadratic formula are ever again used by the non-major students in physical science.  ...