Latin School of Chicago

Do You Know? WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT LATIN? Some of my favorite things about Latin are the richness of resources that we have access to and the willingness of the teachers to assist you if you have an idea for a new lesson or project. With help from some colleagues, my students have been able to work on art projects using a vinyl cutter in our maker space and Photoshop on their laptops. WHAT ARE THE BEST PARTS OF YOUR JOB? I enjoy being around so many students and faculty members who are always striving for their best. Even if things don't work out the way they envisioned, they are flexible to adjust what didn't work and find ways to make it go well. WHY DID YOU DECIDE THAT YOU WANTED TO WORK AT A SCHOOL? Growing up, my art teachers gave me so much of their time and energy to help me be the best I can be with my passion for art. ey inspired me to give back by working at a school with students that might have the same desire to do art work like I did when I was younger. My art teachers always made time to help me, so I have that in my mind when working with students today. I'll do whatever students need me to do to help them achieve their goals. WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES AND INTERESTS? I've loved building plastic models ever since I was a kid. I even started a club at Latin. e students are so eager to come to the art room for our meetings on Monday afternoons that they usually show up early knocking on my door. ey've built everything from cars and tanks to figurines and sci-fi characters. I've also been leading Latin's Gospel Choir for more than 20 years. Two of my children sing in the choir now, which is really fun. I look forward to our performances every year at the Uptown Baptist Church soup kitchen on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. WHAT TRAITS DO YOU ADMIRE IN OTHERS? One of the things that makes this place awesome is that there are so many positive personalities. I admire people's willingness to share what they have with others and to have a giving spirit about them. WHAT ARE YOUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES? I go this place every week called church and I read this really old book called the Bible, so I would say my guiding principle is my faith. It helps soothe me when things happen in life that I don't understand, and it helps keep me grounded. Look around you, what do you see? Notice any parabolas in your midst? Eighth grade Algebra 2 students learning about parabolas (a curve where any point is at an equal distance from a fixed point and a fixed straight line) are instructed to find examples of parabolas in real life and in photographs. Using the online graphing calculator Desmos, the students find the quadratic equation of their identified parabolas. Emboldened with an understanding of parabolas and quadratics, the real fun begins: Students employ artificial intelligence to interact with the quadratic equations. Coding in Python, they each program a chatbot to "talk" to a user about their parabola, find the root of an inputted quadratic, all while having a conversation with the user. By manipulating the math in a variety of platforms, engaging with artificial intelligence through coding, and sharing their chatbot with others, the students deepen their understanding of quadratics and parabolas. This project makes the math relevant and fun. MATH 8: PYTHON & PARABOLAS Code and math are perfect complements. Code is like math: Precision is key, although within the precision there is room to create and have fun." – Jessie Shorr, middle school math teacher print("But I have something even more exciting than quadratic roots!") print('''It's hard to believe, I know''') webbrowser. open("https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg. com/564x/69/9a/93/699a933fe6adeae2 26574d1087b5e1a3.jpg") print("Take a look at the picture that just popped up in another window") print("At first, you think it's just a cool picture of skiers all skiing in the same path") print("But notice what shape they make...") print('''It's called a parabola''') print('''When you graph a quadratic equation like the one we created earlier, it makes a parabola, the shape the skiers are skiing in!''') CHATBOT CODED IN PYTHON Latin Magazine » Fall 2016 19

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