AP Calculus BC started Chapter 12 talking about Vector and Polar notation. We stressed the similarity of Polar and Parametric modes. So, once we figured out how to calculate slopes and arc lengths parametrically, we tried to do the same with polar graphs. We also talked about polar area! Next week is AP Review already!
AP Computer Science is finishing GridWorld part 3 writing the JumperRunner and Jumper classes! After Jumper we will do Recursion and AP Review! It is getting down to crunch time. We need to finish up this week and then do a bit of AP Review next week. The Exams are the following week already???
What was discussed: There was a unanimous decision to Nattify my entire PC Classroom/Lab using the latest 64bit version of Ubuntu. Thanx guys, you did a great job. We decided to KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid, as you will see in the steps listed below. PC24, aka omega, still has some issues, but I think we just need to reinstall that one. Also, I forgot one drawback we encountered the last time we tried a 64bit Linux kernel. Most 64bit related issues seem to have been resolved since then (jre, flash, etc). However, one problem still remains, there is no 64bit version of SmartNotebook for Linux! I may have to downgrade PC25, aka the Teacher Station, aka shadowfax, to 32bit leaving only 24 PCs for openMPI. Before I do that, I'm going to try out http://express.smarttech.com which is an online SmartNotebook you don't have to install. I may also try out http://sketchcast.com I suppose I could use any pen app I please, such as xournal, but I like SmartNotebook for some reason. I did manage to add chrome (https://esd.nasboces.org) and setup my bluetooth tablet (SmartBoard is still down). I didn't get a chance to add jre to FireFox (http://www.sagenb.org, http://screencast-o-matic.com) but I'll get to it on Monday! BTW, the servers are fine, so we left them alone. The servers are running 10.04 LTS 32bit Desktop edition plus openssh, vsftp and jdk. For more info on what we did to install the servers last year, take a look at, http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/05/2-so-many-hard-drives-so-little-time.html and http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/install-linux-64-self-extracting-142068.html
What was accomplished: KISS Ubuntu Install Fest! Step 1) Student and Teacher Stations Download latest Ubuntu ISO (64bit Natty Narwhal 11.04 Desktop LTS edition) from http://www.ubuntu.com
Step 2) Student and Teacher Stations Burn at least 8 Linux live CDs to reinstall 24 PCs. Actually it was 21 PCs as 4 Student Stations were already done as a test bed and I redid the Teacher Station too! OOPs, I fried the entire partition table on the Teacher Station which had WimpDoze on it. I don't use WIMxP anymore anyway. The only thing I go on WimpDoze is for old legacy Word files with Equation Editor. I use http://freepdfconvert.com to upload such a file from my USB drive, even from Linux, and download it as a *.pdf with all equations in place! Then I can easily print them for the copy room in the case of a test or a quiz. BTW, I also use http://www.splitpdfonline.com to break up large free online textbooks I use in my Computing classes into chapters. I can then easily share these files with my students on http://www.edmodo.com
Step 3) Student and Teacher Stations Follow onscreen instructions from install script naming each Linux box from alpha to omega. We also allowed no passwd logins on the Student Stations.
Step 4) Student and Teacher Stations We configured static IPs for eth0 (10.5.129.1 - 10.5.129.25, 255.255.0.0, 10.5.0.254, 10.1.1.10) and printers (10.10.254.212). Set backgrounds and screen-savers as you like. Remember not to lock the Student Stations when the screen-saver kicks in or the students will need the passwd! BTW, the Teacher Station should lock....
Step 5) Student and Teacher Stations Using the Ubuntu Software Center, we searched for and installed WINE and the flash-plugin.
Step 8) Teacher Station only Enabled BlueTooth and tested it with my Smart Airliner Slate (aka Wacom Graphire 6x8 Tablet).
Step 9) Teacher Station only Tried to download all the *.deb files from http://www.smarttech.com to install SmartNotebook, but could not find a 64bit Linux version. I'm trying out xournal (Ubuntu Software Center) and its fine so far!
Step 10) Teacher Station only I installed the 64bit version of jre in FireFox for Chrome to run 3D graphs in SAGE and to screencast with SOM. BTW, goto http://java.sun.com for the jdk (Servers) and http://www.java.com for the jre (Teacher Stations)! Students can live with Tachyon for 3D graphs. Take a look,
Install jre1.6.0_27 as a Firefox plugin for SOM and 3D graphics in SAGE, etc. -use firefox to download latest jre *.bin file (linux 64bit version) from http://www.java.com to /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins -open a terminal and cd /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins chmod 755 *.bin ./j*.bin -then cd /home/userid/.mozilla mkdir plugins cd plugins ln -s /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/jre1.6.0_27/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so -test firefox with "about:plugins" as the url to see that jre was plugged in!
Optional Step 11) Teacher Station only I didn't install VLC. Chrome's VLC plugin is sufficient for playing the *.mp4 files I downloaded from http://www.youtube.com for YouTube Wednesdays via http://www.keepvid.com I won't install VLC unless I really need it since it has 50 dependencies. I'm thinking I may need VLC for the movie marathon during AP Week when I play "Math Movies" from my DVD collection!
Optional Step 12) Teacher Station only I didn't install handbrake either as it depends on VLC. I will install handbrake if I start converting old, non commercially available, out of copyright documentaries I have on VHS to DVD again. I use handbrake to make *.mp4 files from these DVDs for YouTube. See some here, http://www.youtube.com/cistheta2007#g/c/35534A5E32FB49A4
What we are researching I (look what this school did in the 80s and 90s):
Yes, there is life after my AP Calculus BC class! This is by far my favorite time of year. This "season," for want of a better term, starts with LIMACON around the ides of March and ICON around the nones of April. Of course, we also start AP Review around this time followed by AP Exam Week during the calens of May! The AP Calculus exams are usually given early during the 2 AP Weeks, so we have a lot of time to kill after Calculus!
View of my classroom from left rear to left front side.
As a result, Life After Calculus, aka LAC, has evolved into an art form. Right after the AP Exam, we have a Movie Marathon. Traditionally, our Movie Marathon, starts with "Stand and Deliver," but I couldn't bear to watch that movie this year as Jaime Escalante passed away not so long ago. We usually show one or two other movies to do with math, such as "A Beautiful Mind" or "The Proof." In recent years, we've been doing Science Fiction trilogies like "Star Wars" or "Planet of the Apes," etc. I justify this odd behavior by naming each and every TI Graphing Calculator we've ever used after a scifi character.
View of my classroom from right rear to right front side.
TI81 = Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars IV)
TI82 = Klaatu (The Day The Earth Stood Still)
TI83 = Ziggie (Quantum Leap TV series)
TI84 = Joshua (Wargames)
TI85 = Johnny5 (Short Circuit)
TI86 = Spock (Star Trek TV series)
TI89 = Hal 9000 (2001: A Space Odysee)
TI92 = Colossus (The Forbin Project)
I use names of characters from these movies and TV series. So, I claim that I'm still looking for a good name for the latest GC, the TI Inspire CAS. For example, last year we saw all 3 versions of "I Am Legend" (Vincent Price, Charleton Heston and Will Smith) and decided to name the Inspire after Dr. Neville! The year before that, I was still looking for a good name for the Inspire, so we viewed "Back to the Future" and chose the name Doc Brown, but it didn't stick. This year, we went crazy and decided to watch all 9 hours of "The Lord of the Rings!" We viewed 2 DVDs worth of LOTR during AP Week and saved the last DVD for these last few days of school. Maybe we'll rename the Inspire as "Nazgul?"
In between these 2 screenings of LOTR, we actually managed to do a lot of math! What follows is a record of some of the topics we covered. We spent some time, LAC Days 1-8, on loose ends in BC Calculus previewing some topics in Calc III and IV. Then I showed my students how to use a bit of SAGE, http://www.sagemath.org
Thanx, Andrew, for a great rendition of "Our Chief Reader, Rosenstein" by Dan Kennedy. I mentioned this Calculus Song, Parody, Filk, or whatever you want to call it, on the AP Calculus ListServ a few months ago as I had lost the words. The song was about the solution to AP Calculus AB Free Response Question 88AB6:
Let f be a differentiable function, defined for all real numbers x, with the following properties (i) f '(x) = ax^2 + bx (ii) f '(1) = 6 and f "(1) = 18 (iii) int(f(x),x,1,2) = 18 Find f(x). Show your work.
I finally found the lyrics sheet I was looking for in my desk, so my students have had the dubious honor of singing this song in class! Since I mentioned it on the ListServ, I have been asked several times for the words, but I haven't had a chance to share them until now. What follows are the long, sought-after lyrics:
