A review of Elapsed Time StAIR Tutorial
This resource is an interactive tutorial demonstrating the use of a T chart strategy for figuring out elapsed time. It is directed towards second and third grade math students who have been working on basic elapsed time problems and are moving on to more complex problems involving several hours and an odd amount of minutes. This resource caught my eye because I am currently teaching this topic in my math class AND I wanted more exposure to a Stand-Alone Instructional Resource. Although it is labeled as a tutorial, it also has a bit of Skill and Drill added in. The creator did a nice job of "hooking" me into the lesson with it's interesting and colorful background. It started with easy directions on how to navigate through the lesson, a review of what elapsed time is, and then some practice problems. The actual tutorial was a YouTube video that was imbedded into it which demonstrated the T chart strategy which, I have to admit, I've never seen before and thought it was a significant technique I plan to teach tomorrow in math class! I can see using this resource next year with my second graders when we finally have our student laptops. In the meantime, I can teach the strategy being taught on my classroom whiteboard.
Quality of Content:
I felt that the content covered in this resource was relevant for the age group it was directed towards and the discipline intended. It can easily be implemented into any math class as a station students could visit and then return to a classroom assignment or as a whole class experience using a SMARTBoard.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:
This resource seems to be intended for use during the "applying the curriculum to new problems" or more complex problems on elapsed time because it reviews what elapsed time is and has the student do some practice problems. It then takes you to the tutorial to show a new strategy that can be used and can be especially helpful with complex elapsed time problems. After completing the tutorial, students should be able to utilize the T chart strategy to write each elapsed hour and then move on to the minutes column. In the minutes column, students count by 5 minute increments and then 1 minute increments until they reach the new time. It is a very efficient strategy that can easily be understood by all students and because it has the student practice this new technique, they can try it out to see if they understand it before leaving the computer station. Students can easily continue practicing this new strategy with a follow-up worksheet that can be completed at their desks and turned in for assessment by the teacher.
Ease of Use:
This resource was fairly easy to navigate through. It gives clear directions at the beginning on how to use the buttons. The opening page caught my eye immediately with a pleasantly colorful background which was simple, yet interesting. Students are directed to use the forward arrow to move on to each page, a home button the user can use to go back and hear the material again, and an easy click on the answer procedure with a response built into the program. The material is attractively presented on each page and doesn't over stimulate the user with lots of animations, noises, and other things that can be distracting to a young student. The one problem I had while using this tutorial was once I closed out of the YouTube video, I was not taken back to the program. After playing with it a while, I realized the program had been minimized and I needed to click on it to resume the resource. I liked how students were able to interact with the material and practice a variety of elapsed time problems that increasingly got more difficult. Overall, I would give it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.
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