Collaboration

I enjoy working in these small math groups. My role within these groups would often change. Sometimes I would write, or help suggest possible answers. Depending on how confident my other group members felt I could adjust in how I help answer the questions. If they were struggling more, I would give them small hints, whereas if they fully knew what to do I would be writing for them or say my answer knowing that they understood how I got to that point. Usually we are in agreeance, if there arguments occur, we talk it out and figure out what truly is the right solution.

When working on a chapter 6 word problem, I took the role of writing on the whiteboard. My group member and I collaboratively chose to first write out the equation and then list down which variables have determined values (based on information in the question). At times there were struggles on how the phase shift of the graph worked. Our teacher ended up explaining it to us, and when my classmate didn’t understand I did my best to further explain the reasoning.

The equation we came up with was: y=40sinπ/4(x+45)+3 when it was supposed to be y=40sinπ/4(x+135)+3. I explained to my group member that it is 135 instead because that was the point in which the measured compartment of the ferris wheel was at the bottom and 45 was indicating that the compartment of the ferris wheel was at its peak height. There was still confusion and at times I wish I was able to better explain situations and solutions.