TYPOLOGY OF OUR EDUCATIONAL MODELS

5. In Place of a Teacher

Hints and explanations, both verbal and visual, are useful in classroom work and just indispensable in distant learning. They are incorporated into models by means of Show/Hide and Animation buttons, turning the model into a guided presentation.

5.1. Visual Hints

A student that got stuck doing a problem needs a hint. It can be a straightforward verbal instruction as to what to do next, but more interesting and more useful are various indirect hints. For example, it can be an additional construction, or the value of some measurement, or an animated transformation of a figure, etc. Such nonverbal hints appeal directly to geometric imagination, intuition, and the ability to perceive information presented in different forms.

In the following activity a visual hint gives a key to the solution of a classical construction problem.

Constructing a Triangle from Its Median and Two Sides [Model with Hints]

5.2. Stepwise Presentation

The next model contains a full solution to the same problem presented step by step. Activities of this sort are intended to replace fragments of a textbook and are especially useful for self-instruction. In this model, students can vary the given data and explore conditions for the solvability of the problem experimentally.

Constructing a Triangle from Its Median and Two Sides [Model-presentation]

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