The UIUC PT3 Ed Grid Team
Office for Mathematics, Science,
and Technology Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu
The UIUC Ed Grid Team
Project is under the
direction of MSTE
With the support from the following campus units:
MSTE Website
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/
The nexus for MSTE
activities is its website.
There, one can find
information about
MSTE activities and
internet resources that
promote exploration,
modeling, and
visualization in
mathematics and
science. Currently, the
site receives over one
million hits per month.
The MSTE Ed Grid Team
Principal Investigators:
 Kenneth J. Travers
 Delwyn L. Harnisch
Faculty in Mathematics Education:
 Bridget A. Arvold
 Rochelle Gutiérrez
 Timothy M. Hendrix
Faculty in Science Education:
 Fouad Abd-El-Khalick
 David E. Brown
An Intentional Recursive Pattern in
Mathematics and Science Pre-Service
Teacher Education
Immersion
(e.g., in content-based
activities that promote
modeling and visualization)
Reflection
(of how content knowledge
and understanding influence
pedagogical understanding)
Synthesis
(of theory and practice as a
novice teacher exiting the
teacher education program)
Visualization Tools
Web-based java applets:
 Project Interactivate, Shodor Education Foundation,
http://www.shodor.org
 National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, Utah State
University, http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/
 Office for MSTE, UIUC, home-grown java applets
Software packages for visualization and analysis:
 Mathematica and other CAS
 Geometer’s Sketchpad
 Logger Pro and Vernier data collection probes
Java Applets for Visualizing
One resource provided
by the MSTE website are java applets
Mathematics
that prompt exploration of various mathematics concepts.
These applets can be found at:
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/java/
Screenshots of Other Sample Java
Applets
Visualization Tools
Web-based java applets:
 Project Interactivate, Shodor Education Foundation,
http://www.shodor.org
 National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, Utah State
University, http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/
 Office for MSTE, UIUC, home-grown java applets
Software packages for visualization and analysis:
 Mathematica and other CAS

Geometer’s Sketchpad
 Logger Pro and Vernier data collection probes
Using Geometer’s Sketchpad to model conic sections
after folding wax paper:
Visualization Tools
Web-based java applets:
 Project Interactivate, Shodor Education Foundation,
http://www.shodor.org
 National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, Utah State
University, http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/
 Office for MSTE, UIUC, home-grown java applets
Software packages for visualization and analysis:
 Mathematica and other CAS
 Geometer’s Sketchpad

Logger Pro and Vernier data
collection probes
Math and
science preservice teachers
working
together to
collect exercise
heart rate data
and analyze the
data graphically
on the computer
The following graphs were created using a motion detector.
Collaboration with local high schools:
• Pre-service teachers engage in the same
mathematics activities as the high school
students
• We “unpack” these experiences as teachers and
then watch the high school students doing the
same activity via polycom or video
• In some cases, we create/modify activities for the
high school students to try
“Meta-lessons”
 “The use of the motion detector helps students learn about functions because
they can see the graphs and data develop at the same time as they make the
graph…”
 “I became the function…”
 “It helps students to visualize the concept of a function because ‘you can’t go
back in time’…”