Problem Solving with Microcomputers

Teacher Education 233 (3 units)

Summer, 1999

Semester Project: Problem Solving Investigation and Web Page Presentation (40%)
Investigate a problem relevant to the curriculum you teach. The problem may be non-curricular in nature, but it must be useful to students in your teaching area. Use of technology should be an integral, essential part of the solution to the problem for the student. The problem and possibly its solution will be presented through your web site at the end of the semester.

Required reading: "A Whack on the Side of the Head " Roger Von Oech
More required reading: "The Thornburg Articles "
Background reading: "Thinking in Education" Democracy and Education Dewey

Overview:

As part of your research, specify any particular knowledge and skills students initially must have in order to solve the problem. Also identify the grade level, describe any unique characteristics of the target group, and list resources available.
What's the problem? "...an unsettled question or a source of perplexity or vexation often thought of as having an initial state and a goal state" (Halpern, Thought and Knowledge . Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984)
As part of the investigation, decide which thinking skills are relevant to the solution: convergent and divergent thinking, deductive and inductive reasoning, conditional arguments, syllogistic and logical reasoning.
Types of problems :

Here are a few examples of previously submitted web sites. Student Web Sites