TinkerPlots™

TinkerPlots at NCTM 2011

User Group

TinkerPlots was represented at the Technology User Group hosted by Key Curriculum Press at the recently concluded Annual NCTM Meeting, held in Indianapolis in April 2011. The TinkerPlots presentations were part of a combined Technology User Group.

Art and Numbers in TinkerPlots

Presented by Vishakha Parvate (KCP Technologies)

Vishakha created some examples of Mondrian/Pollockian looking art using the Sampler from TinkerPlots 2. She engaged users in a discussion about pleasing aesthetics and the like and unlike proportions of the participant colors.

Additionally, she explored the creation of number systems using various bases with the new Counter tool.

Should Casinos use Pencils instead of Dice?

Presented by Jocelyn Van Vliet, Key Curriculum Press

Download Jocelyn Pencils.zip

Jocelyn rounded out the evening by asking participants to roll pencils to help the casinos in Vegas determine if they could reduce their outlay on dice by changing to six–sided pencils instead. In this presentation, she used TinkerPlots to explore whether rolling a pencil is an appropriate substitute for rolling a fair die. She began by simulating data for the die using the Sampler and observing its variability. Then she evaluated data collected from 20 pencils, both as a whole sample, and then as individual pencils. Finally the entire group compared the variability in these results to the variability expected from a fair die, interpreting the results in the context of the question.