Calques 3D - Call for Collaboration
Working with Calques 3D, a microworld for learning spatial geometry
I am hoping to contact and work with a group of mathematics teachers and educational researchers (in UK or aboard) who would like to collaborate with me in the evaluation of a computer-based environment that I have developed to support learning and visualisation in geometry.
For anyone who is familiar with tools such as Geometer's Sketchpad, or Cabri-Geometer, Calques 3D falls into the same family but is special in that it supports visualisation in three dimensions. For those who are not familiar with this family of learning tools, the main characteristics is that they enable both teachers and learners to manipulate visual images of geometric figures to see how different actions and changes in perspective.
I developed Calques 3D as part of my Computer Science Ph.D. in France. I worked with two teams of secondary school mathematics teachers who helped me to design and develop the system. The main objective of this collaborative work was to provide the teachers (as final users) with software that would fit their needs and their own approaches of teaching spatial geometry. As a result, the software is representative of (a part of) the French Curriculum and has required some limitation and pruning of the spatial geometry domain.
The teachers used Calques 3D in their classroom, mainly to use it as a demonstration or presentation tool by the teacher; Although it is possible for students to use the system for guided or free discovery activity, we didn't look at this in any detail. Now, I would like to work with colleagues to explore how Calques 3D can be adapted for use in schools (in UK or aboard) and explore pupil's learning in detail. The precise questions to be addressed would be defined by the team, but I would like to focus on:
- About the pedagogical content:
- Do the pedagogical contents of Calques 3D, in its current state, suitable with an English educational context? What kind of new features or improvements does it need in order to fulfil the requirements induced by this context? Etc.
- About the pedagogical use:
- How can Calques 3D be integrated in the National Curriculum? What kind of activities, that are part of this Curriculum, could you actually manage with the software? What kind of activities Calques 3D allows you to manage more easily or efficiently? What kind of activities does it allow you to manage that, in a way or in another, enlarge the scope of geometry teaching? Etc.
- About the pedagogical outcomes:
- As a computer-based learning environment, how do the students perceive Calques 3D? Does the software provide them with a more efficient way of learning and understanding spatial geometry? What are the main differences, in term of learning, motivation, etc., between such a computer-based learning environment and a paper-pencil environment? Etc.
