Key Comments

At Key Curriculum, our goal is to offer innovative materials and support for the teaching of secondary mathematics. The Interactive Mathematics Program is definitely such an offering—one we believe will have a lasting effect on the way mathematics is taught.

We value our close partnership with IMP's directors and teachers, and have welcomed the chance not only to build and publish IMP's texts and teaching materials but also to lend support where we can to the professional development and networking aspects so critical to IMP's implementation.

It's great to see the excitement about IMP grow, nationwide!

Fall 2001

IMP and Technology Integration

Although the initial pilot testing of the IMP curriculum included some computer-based activities, few schools had the infrastructure at the time to make effective use of those activities. Graphing calculators, more affordable to schools, became the base technology of the IMP curriculum.

In the last decade, many schools have invested heavily in technology, and computer access, while still limited in many schools, is less of an issue for some schools. As you may know, Key Curriculum Press is the publisher of The Geometer’s Sketchpad®, computer software for exploring mathematics visually. As both Sketchpad™ and IMP grow in use, Key Curriculum has received inquiries from some IMP schools regarding the availability of materials that help IMP users make effective use of Sketchpad. There are clear applications to geometry-oriented IMP units. In addition, new probabilistic and algebraic capabilities introduced in Sketchpad version 4 make it useful with some additional units. Because of the resourcefulness of IMP teachers, and because many IMP schools also use The Geometer’s Sketchpad in their traditional mathematics programs, there are experienced IMP teachers who have already found innovative ways to incorporate Sketchpad into their IMP programs.

Fathom Dynamic Statistics™ is a new tool from Key Curriculum for exploring mathematics from the perspective of data analysis and statistics. Because the IMP curriculum has a strong statistical strand, there are also IMP teachers who have become early experimenters with Fathom.

New Summer Institutes for IMP Focused on Sketchpad and Fathom

During the summer of 2002, Key Curriculum will organize two week-long residential Summer Institutes in the San Francisco Bay Area for IMP teachers who have used or who want to use The Geometer’s Sketchpad and Fathom in their IMP classes. Since we are all at the beginning stages of looking at Sketchpad-IMP and Fathom-IMP integration, these institutes will be collaborative in spirit. We will explore the technology and share the experiences.

• IMP and The Geometer’s Sketchpad Institute, July 7–14, 2002
• IMP and Fathom Dynamic Statistics Institute, July 14–21, 2002

During the current school year, Key Curriculum will work with experienced IMP computer-using teachers and the IMP developers to brainstorm and develop prototype computer-based activities that will form the curriculum for the Summer Institutes. Eventually, we hope to make these materials available to IMP teachers who want to use them.

If you are interested in attending either (or both) of the 2002 Summer Institutes, please register your interest via Key Curriculum’s Professional Development Web page at www.keypress.com/PDC, or call us at 800-995-MATH.

Fall 1999

Three IMP Units Available as Standalone Student Textbooks

Shadows (from Year 1)
Solve It! (from Year 2)
Fireworks (from Year 3)

Many schools that use the Interactive Mathematics Program have asked that these three units be made available as standalone texts, to allow for more flexibility in planning their programs. Some schools prefer to use Shadows, the last unit of Year 1, as the first unit before they begin Year 2. And some schools find that they can finish Solve It! and Fireworks, the first units of Years 3 and 4, in the last month of the previous year. To give all schools more flexibility, and to allow schools that have not adopted IMP as their core curriculum the opportunity to use these units to supplement their traditional curriculum, Key Curriculum Press has released these three units as standalone softcover books.

IMP in Spanish

IMP Years 1 and 2 are now available in Spanish from your IMP Regional Center. Please contact one of the directors to order these materials.

IMP en Español

Años 1 y 2 de IMP en español estan disponibles en su centro regional de IMP. Por favor, llame a uno de los directores para ordenar estos materiales.

What's Cooking Internationally

Impacts Mathèmatiques, the French name for the IMP inititative in Canada, is now available in French. Year 1's Overland Trail unit has been reworked as The Klondike Trail (Las Rue Du Klondike) to incoporate Canadian migration and settlement history.

Also available is L'Affaire Biscuit, the French version of IMP's Baker's Choice replacement unit.

The Impacts Mathèmatiques materials have been translated by and are available from Chenelière McGraw-Hill, 7001 Boulevard St-Laurent, Montreal, Québec, H2S 3E3 Canada. Phone them at 514-273-1066, fax to 514-276-0324, or e-mail chene@dlcmcgrawhill.ca.