Date of Award
5-2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
College/School
College of Science and Mathematics
Department/Program
Mathematical Sciences
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Kenneth C. Kolff
Committee Member
Anthony Piccolino
Committee Member
Helen M. Roberts
Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how grade nine honors geometry students and grade ten regular geometry students learn and retain information about three basic rigid geometric transformations with the support of the software package The Geometer’s Sketchpad in comparison to the traditional, non-software supported method of instruction.
The study was conducted in a high school with two tenth grade regular geometry classes and two ninth grade honors geometry classes. The researcher and another teacher each conducted a one-week instructional unit on the three basic, isometric transformations. Thirty-four students agreed to participate in the study. Nineteen students were in the computer group and fifteen students were in the non-computer group. All students worked through a series of explorations related to the three isometric transformations.
The analysis compared the honors geometry non-computer group to the honors geometry computer group and the regular geometry non-computer group to the regular geometry computer group. An overall comparison was made between the computer group and the non-computer group. Several statistical comparisons were used to compare groups of students. In all of these analyses, the mean score of the computer group was higher than the mean score of the non-computer group, but none of the results were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. This was perhaps due to the rather small sample sizes associated with the classes and the large variability in the post-test and differenced scores.
All students were given a pre- and post-attitudinal survey initially developed by Todd Moyer (2003) that addresses students’ likes and dislikes using The Geometer’s Sketchpad and could only be used for people using The Geometer’s Sketchpad. The scores on the attitudinal survey did not show that students enjoyed using The Geometer’s Sketchpad.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Gennett, LeeAnn Elizabeth, "The Effects of Using The Geometer’s Sketchpad on Student Learning of Transformations in the Coordinate Plane" (2007). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1159.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1159