Students today have access to technology around every corner. Thus, most computer programs, IPads, and etc. are available to students at all times. Students like new experiences; they enjoy using new tools, and will benefit greatly from a lesson that is unusual to their “normal” day-to-day lecture.

Using a Smart Board is a unique experience to most students that not many teachers have the ability to provide. The act of using it, is alone usually motivation enough to get a student to want to participate in a lesson. Many schools are beginning to purchase SMART boards and if that’s not an option, there are teachers across the country receiving grants for SMART boards in their classroom! Some places found with a quick google search are: “Adopt-A-Classroom Grant,” “Citi Group Foundation Grants,” and “Hewlett-Packard Technology for Teaching.”

Smart Boards are versatile in their usage and we will be using it to complete mathematical equations and sketching their graphs so we can successfully teach the following standard:

CCSS.Math.Content.HSA-APR.B.3 Identify zeros of polynomials when suitable factorizations are available, and use the zeros to construct a rough graph of the function defined by the polynomial.

One of the nice things about Smart Boards, is you can use any program as a background and draw over the top. For example, using a PDF of a problem for each student for a problem, like so:

 

Student work may look like this, demonstrating how he/she solved for zeros and finding x-intercepts.

 

This example shows how a student could solve a problem on a smart board by using  verbal instructions to factor the expression then find the zeros and sketch a graph.

Another benefit to smart boards is that they are based on touch or stylus for use, and most students have used some sort of technology that is similar. This type of activity motivates the student to create a personal need to achieve the learning outcome because they are offered a chance to use  or “play” with a technological tool that is fun and unique because the majority of people don’t have access to a smart board.  If they don’t try to learn the lesson, they can’t answer the problem, thus aren’t able to use the Smart Board. Although the boards are similar to things the students have used, they are also different because they are big and new to the student.