Click on any of the [ 8] items below.

1. Prelude to I(nteractive) Q(uestionnaire)s: Successful students need two distinct modes of learning:
  1. One to help them pass tests comfortably;
  2. the other to gain examples of expert knowledge.
They also need the ability to switch between these modes in today's difficult high school and college courses. Picking up the basic ideas used by experts is hard, and even the best written text books don't help. The "simplify-passing-tests" mode is akin to doing crossword puzzles: Fill in the blanks with partial help from answers on overlapping clues. This plays on using memory devices. The book explains why students need both. Further, they need (some) teachers who can write exams that use both, guiding them to superior use of basic expert skills based on using the crossword skill. IQ-prelude.html

2. A student looks back at vector calculus: 02/17/11 An interchange in which a student – in response to the article fried-opinion-refcomp.pdf wonders how they could benefit from the IQ and POD technology. While technology and a solid assessment format are the essence of the system, the goal is an engaged student, one able to anticipate when they need help. IntroKasia02-16-11.html

3. Dynamic Learning using IQs: Each topic cone (in the pdf file) above a student desk is symbolic of a dynamic learning process – during the running of a class – on a particular topic. IQ readers extract from each student's "portfolio of interaction" (see the html file) the data to construct the student's cone of understanding over time on the topic. Most significant: Typically, in time, topic cones swell out and then narrow, indicating gaining, then losing retrievable understanding of the particular material. Matthew Peterson, a student with graphic talent, in the 1st quarter I instigated IQs, asked me what was the goal of IQs. This was his graphical portrayal of my explanation. Matthew now runs a software company, Mind Institute that makes graphic driven, mathematics software, so far for K-8 students. portfol_eval_grfx.html %-%-% portfol_eval_grfx.pdf

4. Dynamic Intercession Graphic: This graphic was the conclusion for a 04/01/06 powerpoint talk on Continuous Assessment, at Montana State U. in Billings. The metaphor from the Graphic on topic cones, is that you need to intercede sporadically in classes on individual old topics, after a midterm and before the final. Otherwise, neither you nor your students will be aware that what you thought they understood has disappeared. They've lost how you prompted them to follow their early training. You didn't realize that you're prompting was what got their response, at first. Classroom examples show that without some intercession – such as IQs; whose need is caught by a timely P(roblem)O(f the)D(ay) – that you even taught the topic won't register on the final. DynLearnGph07-14-04.html %-%-% DynLearnGph07-14-04.pdf

5. Problem Presentation: Recurring Curriculum Concepts: Most math concepts that ever troubled students appear again in Vector Calculus. It isn't because they appear in complicated ways, but rather that their simplest manifestations puzzle students about their very nature. The pdf file lists most. After that is a serious relevant mathematics problem – presented not so seriously – followed by a small essay on changing problem solving to problem presentation. One key to problem presentation is that different aspects of the same problem should appear in several classes. Then, the story hidden in the problem related use of math symbols to many course concepts. For other reaons, Problem presentation should be part of POD, IQ and exam (assessment) questions. It simplifies making questions tied efficiently to the curriculum, and it telegraphs what the course is about. Essay-ProbPres.pdf

6. An exam emphasizing quantitive use of lines and planes: At the 5 week point of Vector Calculus, the topics had these names:

1Ex2d.pdf

7. Shell program, Mail Send Mac, illustration: Most programs in the IQ + POD system have the following ingredients where ... in each case may have considerable text. On any line a # is the unix shell escape character. The html file example is of the program m(ai)ls(end)m(ac).

cr_date=01/02/07 # Never change this.
rev_date=08/08/07 # Change this when you revise.

# # PURPOSE OF PROGRAM: ...
# # HISTORY OF SIGNIFICANT REVISIONS: ...
# # SET VARIABLES: ...
# # PROGRAM STARTS: ...
# Last line of program:
echo "%% $base_prog last revised $rev_date.
Created $cr_date %%"
mlsm.html

Above is the prelude to the book on the I(nteractive) Q(uestionnaire) technology.
Rainbow Line
There are four sections below, representing the three parts of the book on the IQ technology, and a 4th of supporting papers:
Part I: How Crosswords and their clues work: Chapters 1–?:

Rainbow Line
Part II: Applying the Crossword Metaphor, and extracting expert basics: Chapters ?–?:

Rainbow Line
Part III: Anticipating questions about material: Chapters ?–?:

Rainbow Line
Papers supporting the IQ technology.: Chapters ?–?:

8. Interactive E-Mail Assessment, MAA Vol. on Assessment, B. Gold, S.Z. Keith, and W.A. Marion, eds., Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics, MAA Notes #49, Wash. DC, 1999, 80–84. Initially, administrators balked at my insistence that they were not seeing the significance of the sophomore courses that impeded progress for so many students. The larger cohort of freshman calculus seemed like more "bang for the buck." Until I brought up the case of Howard Thompson, they didn't realize the course I was talking about was a total bottleneck for minority students ever participating in Mathematics, Science or Engineering. The html file explains that. The pdf file is the published paper on my "I(nteractive) Q(uestionnaire" assessment technology. In real time, that technology increased by an order of magnitude what students were learning in difficult courses. It gave the tools to intercede, without loss of class time, long before final exam failure. maa_em-ass.html %-%-% maa_em-ass.pdf