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Integrate a Dynamic Locator to check answers by navigating x-y coordinates?

I created the following test for young learners to check their understanding of x-y coordinates:enter image description here

aif[] := RandomInteger[{-6, 6}]
Graphics[{PointSize[Large], Blue, Point[Table[{aif[], aif[]}, 5]]},
 Axes -> True, AxesLabel -> {"X", "Y"}, AxesStyle -> Black, 
 GridLines -> {Range[-7, 7, 1], Range[-7, 7, 1]}, 
 GridLinesStyle -> Dotted, PlotRange -> {{-7, 7}, {-7, 7}}]

Firstly, I would like to add Dynamic Locator for learners to check their answers by navigating to each point and reading it's coordinates. Can anybody help, pls?

Secondly, How can I label these points using letters A,B,C,D,E?

The routine is the following: complete the task, submit the answers, check your answers, grade your work. Therefore, I do not want Locator to be available from the beginning but this I will fix myself.

I am quite excited about this type of tasks: students are always tempted to chenge the wrong answers to paint more positive picture about their performance and, therefore, the self assessment / self marking might not be reliable. I do not use peer marking and I try to miminmize time I spent on grading of students' work. The routine above kills more than two birds with one Mathematica code: the answers are submitted, and, therefore, students can be trusted to mark their work. They get the grade swiftly without any cost for me. By marking their work learners can get an idea about the mistakes they have made if any and set individual learning targets. I note in passing I am no longer setting the learning targets for my students or, in plain English, I do not tell my students what they are not good at. I have time to focus on supporting my students and check that they mark their work properly. Overall, marking their work, understanding their mistakes and setting learning targets provides sufficient evidence to evaluate their "behaviour for learning".

POSTED BY: Vladimir Portnyk
5 Replies
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Updating Name
Updating Name
Posted 4 years ago

Rohit, I understand what you mean! "To plot points with labels and no tooltip" . The tooltip is used to display the correct answer! This is something I have not thought of and I like it a lot. it is brilliant! I have made a mental note of it and I will use it going forward.

Most computer based assessments or Maths learning, including MOOCs, evaluate learners' understanding of specific area of Maths based on a number of correct answers. Arguably the activities where learners are required to fill in the gaps are essentially the same even when there are multiple correct fillings. As you might have noticed I have announced a very ambitious project "A New Kind of School" last summer to provide people of all background and abilities an opportunity to experience Stephen's A New Kind of Science and learn maths. I planned to present the project in details at the Wolfram Conference this month, but for some technical reasons it will not happen.On a positive note it gave us a bit of extra time to develop the technical proof of concept. It was inspired by Conrad's computer based maths

Students in general and secondary school pupils specifically are answer driven i.e. they focus on getting the correct answer while they should be focusing on the solution i.e. on steps they have taken to obtain the answer. My solution of choice is both simple and efficient: I display an answer and ask learners to check if it is correct or not. Alternatively, I tell the correct answer and ask students to find out how it was obtained. Obviously, this is a variation of The Moore Method, it is also known as "confirmation inquiry ", a type of inquiry based learning. Speaking about a big picture in teaching and learning maths by asking these questions I create the circumstances for learners to experience "mathematical proof" , students are known to struggle with "proof" questions.
POSTED BY: Updating Name

You are brilliant! I was looking for these arrowheads but in vain. Thank you so much! Your response is a true treasure box for me!

I note in passing I have concurred Dynamic Locator, see below. Feel free to share your ideas about possible deployment options and everything really. I do not have any coding experience in Mathematica. Fortran 88, Basics, Pascal, C++, Java, JavaScript, VB, Paradox, Delphi, PowerBuilder, SQL, XML, DirectX and Haskell yes, as a Technical Architect of Symbian OS I thought I know something but It seems Erich Gamma's Design Patterns, The Book of Household Management in the field of software development, is in the hall of fame, but it used to be at my desk (I had a few copies :) )!

To be fair since I pronounced Haskell to be a better alternative for exotic derivatives based financial products representations and life cycling vs Excel tables, VisualBasic, C++ or Java and moving from IT to Hybrid Exotic trading stopping by at the Quant team to tune up my vision to "see it through" I spent a few years of having functional fun in the world of financial derivates and client side products where the future event dates are known today. Recently developing quantitative investment strategies and asking Quant-IT to develop a few helper functions to represent traditional delta 1 products such as basket of shares or ETF holdings where the future event dates are not known in advance and the events are observed, triggered and implemented, for example, the portfolio rebalancing to ensure no single component represents more than 10% of the portfolio. Most recently teaching Advanced Level Maths. Among these very different areas there is something of critical importance in common: automation. 

aif[] := RandomInteger[{-6, 6}]
DynamicModule[{ 
  B = {0, 0}}, {Graphics[{Locator[Dynamic[B]], PointSize[Large], Blue,
     Point[Table[{aif[], aif[]}, 5]]},
   Axes -> True, AxesLabel -> {"X", "Y"}, AxesStyle -> Black, 
   GridLines -> {Range[-7, 7, 1], Range[-7, 7, 1]}, 
   GridLinesStyle -> Dotted, PlotRange -> {{-7, 7}, {-7, 7}} ], 
  Dynamic[B]}]
POSTED BY: Vladimir Portnyk
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 4 years ago

Vladimir,

Another option for visualizing the solution is to draw arrows from the axes to the point when the mouse is over a point. e.g

epilog = {Mouseover[
      {PointSize[Large], Red, Point[#]},
      {{Green, Thick, Arrowheads[{0.0, 0.03}], Arrow[{{0, #[[2]]}, #}]},
       {Green, Thick, Arrowheads[{0.0, 0.03}], Arrow[{{#[[1]], 0}, #}]},
       {Style[Text[#[[1]], {#[[1]]/2, #[[2]] + 0.2}], 12, Black]},
       {Style[Text[#[[2]], {#[[1]] - 0.2, #[[2]]/2}], 12, Black]}
       }] & /@ points};

And add Epilog -> epilog to the ListPlot. When the mouse hovers over the {2, -2} point:

enter image description here
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi

I just posted a new question activity. what do you think?
POSTED BY: Vladimir Portnyk
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 4 years ago

Hi Vladimir,

Sounds like a fun project. How about something like this.

range = {-6, 6};
numPoints = 5;
points = RandomInteger[range, {numPoints, 2}];
labels = Alphabet[] // ToUpperCase // Take[#, numPoints] &;
tooltipPoints = Tooltip[#, StringTemplate["(``, ``)"][Sequence @@ ##]] & /@ points;

To plot points with labels and no tooltip

ListPlot[points -> labels,
 PlotRange -> Transpose[{range, Reverse@range}],
 AspectRatio -> 1,
 GridLines -> Full,
 GridLinesStyle -> Dotted,
 PlotStyle -> {PointSize[Large], Red},
 PlotRangePadding -> 1,
 AxesLabel -> {"X", "Y"},
 AxesStyle -> Arrowheads[{0.0, 0.04}],
 ImageSize -> 400]

enter image description here

To plot points with tooltips, replace points -> labels with tooltipPoints -> labels.

enter image description here
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi
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