Reflective Paper

Reflective Paper

MTH/157

There are many aspects to the Mathematics for Elementary Teachers course, which is a two-part course and its purpose is to help the future elementary educators get a better understanding of the basic concepts so that they can teach them efficiently to their students. The second part of the course, which is MTH/157, is focused on various interesting ways to teach probability, statistical methods for analyzing data, geometric figures and also identified applications of measurements. In simpler terms, this course focuses on measurement, geometry, probability, and data analysis. Probability, for example, can be fun to learn by using games to understand the intricacy of the topic. Games like the Coin-Flip or the Dice Roll were very helpful in seeing what the possible outcomes were and it made learning about probability more interesting. The course also followed probability with the concept of predicting probability and how to predict the outcomes. The most difficult concept related to probability and predictions is the probability of independent and dependent events. When one outcome of an event is not affected by another, it is considered independent, but when the outcome of one event is affected by the outcome of another event, it is considered dependent. There are two different types of probability; theoretical and experimental, in which the theoretical probability cannot be used in real life situations but the experimental probability can. Identifying geometric shapes and figures based on mathematical arguments can be difficult but with the tools throughout the course, it can definitely be understood as well as inherited into the mind almost as a second nature. Identifying the geometric shapes and figures based on mathematical arguments was an interesting part in this course given that there were a combination of 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional shapes. The basic topics learned in this section of the course were covered over the...