Blog 4

The PowerPoint presentation I created was about firefighters and the application of math problems that firefighters come in contact with at fires.  I presented it to a high school student who is considering pursuing firefighting as a career.  The first three slides had a brief description about firefighting, the education a firefighter must have, and the requirements of being a firefighter.  The rest of the presentation was divided into two parts.  The first part was a type of math question that is usually asked on the written portion of the firefighter exam.  The second part was a math application problem that firefighters often come across.

          I am most proud of the animation that I put into the presentation.  Using PowerPoint, it was easy to ask the student how he would answer the problem before I revealed the correct way to solve the problem and its solution.  The animation helped separate the different steps of the problem so the student had time to think about how to solve the problem.  During the presentation, the student was confused on how to initially start the problem, but after the first step was shown the student was able to work the problem himself.

          If I could create the presentation again, I would add another math problem.  The new problem would be a question that the student would not be able to answer.  I would add this problem so the student would know that he still has a lot of math to learn in order to achieve his goal of becoming a firefighter.  The additional problem would have involved calculus.  I would have also included the description of an arson investigator with the description about firefighters.  Arson investigators are another option that the student may consider if he does decides to pursue firefighting as a career.  If I had included arson investigation in the presentation, I would also like to include a math application problem that arson investigators come across.  I would also like to add a last slide that instructs the student to research firefighting and to come up with his own application problem.  It would also be required that the student create his own PowerPoint presentation that included his problem.

          The student responded very well to the presentation.  I do not believe he had ever seen a math problem that is associated to firefighting before.  The fact that the presentation was about something that interested the student helped him stay focused throughout the presentation.  His interest also served as an internal motivator for him to want to be able to solve the math problems by himself.  The PowerPoint presentation has motivated the student to concentrate on doing his best when it comes to his math problems.