http://www.dynamicgeometry.com
You can now use your iPad to interact with and explore a document created in GSP. Search SketchExplorer in the App Store, or go to The Geometer's Sketchpad Resource Center General Resources and click on Sketchpad Explorer for iPad to download the app to your iPad. For now, the app is free, but the price is expected to go to about $4.00 US.
The app downloads with links to several documents. To see these links, click on the book icon at the bottom right corner. You can choose to search the Sketch Exchange site directly from the app. Most fit nicely on the iPad screen, but you can choose the iPad tag to find documents that are sized to be compatible with SketchExplorer. This app will interact with most GSP documents, but you cannot create new items on the document or create a new document.
Check out the linked documents, but remember to search Sketch Exchange for more. Here are a few excellent GSP documents from the Sketch Exchange site that work well in SketchExplorer.
- Excercise Machines - This document is amazing, creating exercises for topics from polygon angle sums to special right triangles and circles. Most of these exercises create infinite versions of the same type of problem, with appropriate diagrams. Yes, the solutions are also given.
- Addition on the Open Number Line - Students add 2- and 3-digit numbers with arcs on the open number line. Strategies for composing and decomposing numbers are developed, such as 32+48 = 32+50-2.
- Cutting up a Pi - This document shows two dissections of the circle to demonstrate why the area formula works. This document has very cool animations.
- Dancing Factors - Choose a number from 1-36 and watch the factors circle ("dance") around it. Great fun, especially for younger students. Be sure to check out the "More Activities" link on the KCP Technologies tab. This GSP document is part of The Dynamic Number Project.
- Unfolding 3-D objects - Watch a cube, square pyramid and cylinder unfold into their 2-D nets, then fold back up. You can show the vertices and change the shape of faces.
- Quadrilateral Tree - This is a nice visualization of the relationships between quadrilaterals, listing properties of each. Vertices can be manipulated to verify properties.
- Why not SSA? - This is an excellent animation to show why two sides and the non-included angle are not sufficient to show congruent triangles. Any student learning about the ways to prove two triangles are congruent will appreciate this demonstration.
- The Unit Circle - Graphs of basic trig functions are shown, as generated by the unit circle, using degrees and radians.
- Player Piano - This is a very cool document that plays Beethoven's Ode to Joy from a GSP document. Transpose the tune up or down, speed it up or slow it down. Download the document into Sketchpad 5 and follow the included instructions to create your own melody.
The Geometer's Sketchpad Resource Center is a tremendous resource for math teachers.
Sketch Exchange is a free online community for sharing Sketchpad activities, tips, questions, and ideas. Upload your activities or download activities created by others.
The Sketchpad LessonLink is a subscription service, providing access to Sketchpad activities and how-to videos. http://www.keypress.com/x26771.xml
