Group items tagged

As an introduction to our unit on surface area and volume of solids, my students investigated cross-sections of solids through a Play-Doh Cross Sections lab activity. Materials: play-doh, paper plates, dental floss, plastic knife, and ruler.

The problem involved mathematical equivalence (i.e., 4+5+7=__+7), which is known to be critical to later algebraic learning. In the speech-only videos, the instructor simply explains the problem. In the other videos, the instructor uses two hand gestures while speaking, using different hands to refer to the two sides of the equation. Students who learned from the gesture videos performed better on a test given immediately afterward than those who learned from the speech-only video. Another test was given 24 hours later, and the gesture students actually showed improvement in their performance while the speech-only students did not.

Coming together to create a real learning environment for students

I have started this blog to document, revisit, and hopefully improve upon many of the approaches that have helped me the most over these years. Some of the postings are “mini-lectures” that most of my tutees have probably heard (cue the eye-rolls). Others are musings about the variations in how math seems to be understood or taught.

Let us climb peaks by all means, because their beauty attracts us; not because others have failed, nor because the summits stand 28000 ft above the sea…Let us approach the peaks with humility, and through finding the way to them…learn to solve their problems. Eric Shipton (1938)