Front End Estimation User Guide

Front-End Estimation of Sums An Interactive Short-Tutorial

1

Front-End Estimation - User’s Guide | Anna-Marie Robertson, November 22, 2011

Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Target Learners ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Purpose and Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 3 Equipment Needed ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Hardware Requirements: .......................................................................................................................... 4 Software Requirements: ........................................................................................................................... 4 Network Connection: ................................................................................................................................ 4 Getting Started.............................................................................................................................................. 4 Running the Tutorial ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Tutorial length........................................................................................................................................... 5 General Operation .................................................................................................................................... 5 Ending the Tutorial.................................................................................................................................... 7 Troubleshooting ........................................................................................................................................ 7

2

Front-End Estimation - User’s Guide | Anna-Marie Robertson, November 22, 2011

Introduction This user’s guide is intended to explain how and when to use the interactive Flash tutorial: Front-End Estimation. This tutorial was created for use in a Math Review course offered by Richard McKenna Charter High School. Students very often confuse rounding estimation with front-end estimation. This tutorial was created to help alleviate that confusion.

Target Learners This tutorial was created to be used in the Math Review class for Richard McKenna Charter High School.

These learners are students that need to review basic math concepts such as estimation before entering a Pre-Algebra course or they are students that need an elective credit and choose to take this review course. All of these students are between the ages of 14 and 20 years of age. Richard McKenna Charter High School is a fully online high school. All of the students that attend RMCHS are diploma-seeking students. Many come to us with below average math skills and many qualify for at-risk status. Since this is a fully online high school, it is pre-requisite that students have basic computer skills.

Purpose and Objectives The purpose of this short tutorial is to make it clear to students what front-end estimation is and how it is used. The objectives for the lesson on front-end estimation include: Given two numbers in the thousands, students will be able to: a) drop the tens and ones and replace them with zeros b) add the thousands and hundreds c) state the front-end estimation d) understand that there is no rounding involved when applying front-end estimation

3

Front-End Estimation - User’s Guide | Anna-Marie Robertson, November 22, 2011

Equipment Needed Hardware Requirements: • • • •

PC with Pentium III 700 MHZ with at 512 RAM or higher, comparable operating system for Mac Monitor, mouse, keyboard Current graphics and sound card Speakers

Software Requirements: • • •

Operating System: Windows XP or higher for PC, comparable operating system for Mac Flash Player 7.0 or higher Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox browser

Network Connection: •

Internet access and RMCHS network login and password once it’s deployed on the school server.

Getting Started Currently you can access this program from the EDTECH2 server at: http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/robertsona/511/Assignments/FinalProject/robertsonFinalProject.swf Once this tutorial is deployed, it will be accessed by students who are logged into the RMCHS LMS and have a login and password. At this time the tutorial will be housed on the RMCHS server and connected to the appropriate lesson.

4

Front-End Estimation - User’s Guide | Anna-Marie Robertson, November 22, 2011

Running the Tutorial Tutorial length This is a “short-tutorial” which means that a student can work through it in less than ten minutes. It is important that this tutorial be kept short because it’s intended to be used with at-risk students that have a notorious short attention span. They like things quick and to the point.

General Operation There are only four sections to this tutorial: 1) The Home screen has four navigation buttons located in the lower right corner of the screen. These navigation buttons appear in every section. When the Home screen first appears, the truck comes in from the left carrying the words Front-End Estimation accompanied by the sound of a truck coming to a stop when it reaches the left side of the screen.

Then the words float up to the top of the screen and the student can make a choice of how they want to start by choosing one of the navigation links at the bottom.

2) The Video screen contains instructions to click the Play button on the video interface to watch a short video about how to do Front-End Estimation. When the student clicks the play button on the player, they will hear a music lead-in and then it fades into the video. At the conclusion of the video, it fades out to a copyright screen with the name of the author and the school to which this tutorial belongs.

5

Front-End Estimation - User’s Guide | Anna-Marie Robertson, November 22, 2011

3) The Tutorial screen contains a number hopper at the top of the screen as well as three truckswaiting to receive the numbers. When the tutorial first starts, the number hopper sends out a number in word form, it pauses briefly to be read and then floats down to one of the trucks and changes into its numeric form. This happens one more time with another number. Both of these numbers are in the thousands. Once both numbers settle on the backs of the trucks, a Dump button appears.

The student then clicks on this button which triggers the two trucks to lift up and dump the tens and ones, which turn into balls and roll away. Then the beds of the trucks lower back down and a set of two zeros zoom in from the background to take the places of the tens and ones that were dumped. Then these zeros float down to the bottom truck and come to rest on the back of the third truck.

At this point, the number hopper sends out a Combiner which floats down over the hundreds digits and combines them together leaving the result on the back of the third truck. This happens one more time for the thousands.

When the last number is deposited on the back of the third truck, the animation stops and allows the student to view the results.

6

Front-End Estimation - User’s Guide | Anna-Marie Robertson, November 22, 2011

4) The last section is the Practice. On this screen the word Practice floats onto the screen with a start button for the student to click on to trigger the practice quiz.

There are six questions in the practice quiz. The student is given two chances to answer each question. The questions have graphics that aid in learning and applying the concepts. At the end of the quiz, there is a slide that shows the student’s score on the quiz. The student can retake the quiz as many times as they desire. This quiz opens in a separate window so it’s easy to close out of at anytime and return back to the tutorial.

Ending the Tutorial The student can close the window at anytime to end the tutorial and return at anytime and choose to go to any place in the tutorial. The quiz can be taken as many times as desired. It opens in a new window or tab making it easy to close and return to the tutorial.

Troubleshooting If you experience technical difficulties while trying to run this tutorial, you may need to upgrade your Flash player. This can be done by visiting the Adobe website: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

7

Front-End Estimation - User’s Guide | Anna-Marie Robertson, November 22, 2011