PEN
Arrowhead Software
http://www.t-tools.com/VisProgramming.html
PEN is a rapid prototyping tool that can produce
new components for use in ESCOT. PEN embodies
an interactive, graphical, exploratory approach
to design new components.
Plotting: A PEN component is overlayed on top
of a SimCalc graph to provide scafolding to students
new to point plotting. Positive feedback is given
in the form of a green circle that appears on
the graph when the student moves the mouse over
a point in a given list (list not shown). This
image is taken from the Shoelaces EPoW. If the
student clicks on a point that's not in the list
a message appears informing them of the error.
Correctly plotted points are relayed to the graph
where they appear as small black rectangles.
Line Fitting: The second part of the EPoW involved
fitting a line to the set of plotted points. The
student can drag the blue dot to change the y-intercept
of the red line, or they can drag the red dot
to adjust its slope.
Sample problems: Hispanioloa
Water Shortage, Mosaic,
Shoelaces, Marathon
Graphing
Example EPoWs:
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 The
Hispaniola Water Shortage
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In this problem, students were asked to
use virtual containers of water, of definite
sizes, and combine them in various ways
to come up with as many different resulting
volumes as possible.
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Mosaic
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In
this problem, students use blocks of variable
length (fractional, not decimal) to fill up
a map of the USA like a mosaic. They then
use the size of the blocks to estimate the
area of the map.
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Shoelaces
I-III
(click on image for larger view)
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Students use graphing skills to help store
customers choose the best shoelace length
and giftwrappers the best ribbon length.
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Marathon
Graphing
(click on image for larger view)
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Students use given data and best-fit lines
to predict the winning women’s marathon
times from various years.
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For additional information about this or other
components, contact Mark
Chung, ESCOT Component Coordinator
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