Story
In reviewing the many tools available to us to tell our story, I decided upon using Prezi (www.prezi.com). I was hoping to use a different tool, since I have already had the pleasure of using Prezi previously, but I needed a tool that allowed me to tell a story in a linear fashion and I was looking to use pictures and words together. I wanted to mix fact with fiction, and tell a story with a bit of “tongue in cheek” flair, so in the end, after checking out the other web 2.0 tools, I settled on Prezi. I enjoy the zooming in and out movement of Prezi, and embedding my story on a digital canvas. The created a background word cloud (created at www.taxgedo.com) to imbed my story into. I was limited by the website to what picture I could create with the words (I would have loved a right angle triangle!), and in the end chose a simple rectangle.
I chose Pythagoras as the center of my story because the use of his theorem is central to many ideas in all levels of mathematics that I teach. The Pythagorean Theorem is introduced to students at the grade eight level, but is again touched upon in grades ten and eleven. Pythagoras was an accomplished scholar and contributed much to the area of Mathematics (as well as music!). I could easily use this presentation at the beginning of multiple lessons involving the Pythagorean Theorem. It would also be fun to ask students to make a “mockumentary” on another famous mathematician, including well known facts, as well as some lesser known (i.e., made up) facts, to get students interested in mathematical history.
I very much enjoyed creating this presentation and look forward to feedback from my students after viewing it.