This software is for teaching and learning Mathematics in Form 4 Circles. Teachers should note that it is not a self-learning software. Instead, teachers should use it as a teaching aids. It is hoped that under sufficient guidance of teachers, students could investigate geometric properties and make their own conjectures. It may or may not help students in learning deductive reasoning, but it should be able to help students discover Mathematics, which is the most interesting part in learning Mathematics.

The software consists of a lot of interactive diagrams, created by JavaSketchpad. There are altogether nine chapters: Basic terms of a circle, Chords of a circle, Angles in a circle, Cyclic quadrilateral, Tangents to a circle Further problems about best viewing position, and Further problems about intersecting circles.

Other information

• Author: Cheng Wing Kuen ¾G ¥Ã Åv
• Platform: Win 95; Win NT 4.0
• Tools used: Html and JavaSketchpad
• System/Browse requirement: IE 4.0 or Netscape Commumicator

• The parent WWW site for JavaCircles is at Wing Kuen's Homepage. It allows teachers and students having easy access to the software.
• In the past, once a book is published, even if there is mistakes, we have to wait at least a year or two for a new edition with amendments. Furthermore, it is not cost-effective. This is similiar to publishing CD-ROMs or diskettes. It is hoped that using html, the software could be modified continuously and immediately once any mistake is found.
• Whether a software is effective in teaching and learning could not be tested at the beginning. Through internet, the users and the author could have interaction. It is hoped that teachers and students after using the software could give suggestions to the author directly so that the software could be modified after actual tryout. This is to ensure that the effectiveness of the software could be improved continuously.
• Even if there is no computer in a classroom, teachers could give some guiding questions and ask students to investigate through their own computers and Internet at home.

JavaSketchpad is a very useful tool for both teaching and learning Mathematics. Diagrams drawn by the dynamic geometry software Sketchpad could be converted to Javasketchpad diagrams. Teachers and students could access these diagrams through the Internet easily without the software Sketchpad. They could also access them by off-line browsing. The only thing needed is a Java-capable browser.

As the file sizes for all JavaSketchpad diagrams are very small, it does not take a long time to load a page.The first time you load a page will take you 2 minutes on-line or half a minute offline, but the next time you load a page will take you only a few seconds.

The following summarizes the advantages of JavaSketchpad.

• dynamic (it could have many parameters);

• interactive (teachers and students can control it);
• easy access (it could be posted in Internet);
• easy to use (teachers and students need not be too familiar with Sketchpad);
• flexible (it could be used as teachers' demonstration or students' exploration);
• fast (the total size is less than 1Mb);
• low cost (it is free of charge for non-commercial purpose).

The following diagram shows you an example how interactive a JavaSketchpad diagram is. Sorry, this page requires a Java-compatible web browser.

This applet uses a prototype of JavaSketchpad, the World-Wide-Web component of The Geometer's Sketchpad. Copyright & copy; 1990-1998 by Key Curriculum Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Portions of this work are being funded by the National Science Foundation (awards DMI 9561674 & 9623018).

• Click and drag on red points to move them.
• Click on buttons inside the sketch to cause objects to move, or new objects to appear and disappear. (If a button stays down when you click it, you can click a second time to release it.)
• When objects are animating or moving, press '>' to speed up motion or '<' to slow it down.
• Press 'r' to reset the sketch to its initial configuration.
• If the screen becomes cluttered with traced objects, click the red 'X' in the lower-right corner to clear the traces.

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