Justification of the intellectual rigor and engagement

This resource not only gets students to reach the syllabus outcomes, but to explore the concepts deeper through investigation, both with the interactive graphs, activities exploration tasks and the research project.  Questions are raised throughout this research to challenge the students and increase the intellectual rigor of the lessons.  The challenge activity at the end of the third coordinate geometry lesson extends the students further by requiring them to apply their knowledge of gradient and distance to a formal mathematical proof, something that is notoriously difficult for high school students.  This website takes the students step by step through it, thus scaffolding their knowledge and providing a challenge for them.  

Engagement is vitally important since Prensky (2001) points out that “if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them” (p. 2). This resource enhances student engagement through its interactive nature.  Interactive graphs, exploration tasks and interactive activities, in which students learn through discovery, feature in the lessons. This is important as today’s students are “active participants rather than passive observers” (Prensky, 2001, p. 11).