SBIR Phase I: Sketchpad for Young Learners of Mathematics: Dynamic Visualization Software in Grades 3-8

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在确定并克服在中小学数学课上有效整合the Geometer’s Sketchpad软件的障碍。这个基于研究的教育软件已经在中学阶段以其培养动态数学可视化和探索的能力以及提高学生的学习能力而闻名。该项目回应了教师、课程开发和研究团体以及国家数学教师委员会等标准机构对软件应用和适应低年级的明确呼吁。由创建和维护Sketchpad的团队领导的拟议研究将确定当前软件及其课程整合模型中阻碍3-8年级有效使用的方面，并调查、测试和评估一系列软件设计修改、实现和活动场景，以克服这些障碍。此外，KCP技术公司还将研究与最广泛采用的国家科学基金会中学改革课程“连接数学项目”的深度联系的潜力，以确定从这项工作中产生的修改后的青年学习者素描板如何能最好地提高学生的学习能力，并支持当今现实世界课堂上有效的课程。该项目达到其目标的更广泛的影响（并通过第二/第三阶段追求这些目标）将是创建并最终在小学和初中广泛使用适合年龄的动态几何数学教育技术（和支持课程），类似于那些在中学阶段定义Sketchpad的软件，该软件被全国数学教师认为是对学生最有价值的软件（Becker,1999）。

This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project aims to identify and overcome barriers to the effective integration of The Geometer's Sketchpad software in elementary and middle school math classes. This research-based educational software is already well known at the secondary level for its ability to foster dynamic mathematics visualization and exploration and to enhance student learning. This project responds toclear calls for the software's application and adaptation to younger grades coming from teachers, curriculum development and research communities, and from standards bodies such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The proposed research, led by the team that created and maintains Sketchpad, will identify aspects of the present software and its model of curriculum integration that act as obstacles to effective use ingrades 3-8, and investigate, test, and evaluate a series of software design modifications, implementations, and activity scenarios to overcome these obstacles. KCP Technologies will additionally research the potential for deep connection to the most widely-adopted National Science Foundation middle school reform curriculum, the Connected Mathematics Project, to determine how the modified Sketchpad for Young Learners that emerges from this work can best enhance student learning and support effective curricula in today's real-world classrooms. The broader impact of this project reaching its objectives (and pursuing them throughPhase II/III) will be the creation and eventual wide availability, in primary and middlegrades, of age-appropriate Dynamic Geometry mathematics education technologies (andsupporting curriculum) similar to those which define Sketchpad at the secondary level,where the software is considered the most valuable software for students (Becker,1999) by mathematics teachers across the country.