During our class on Monday Dec. 3 we had a visit from a grade 10 math class from Richmond. They shared their math projects done on a variety of subjects. I was very impressed by the some of the conflicting stories they created and enjoyed visiting the different projects and talking to the students about their processes. Being able to animate math into something fun and exciting rather than just stale questions is definitely a skill. The SNAP math fair really advocates for accessibility. Students were able to express their learning in a variety of ways (pictorial, orally, written, kinesthetic) while also being able to showcase their talents and interests. It allowed students to personalize these math concepts in ways that made sense to them.
One surprise I had was during a conversation with one of the students who expressed that they preferred word problems to rote exercise because it gave context to the problem and offered a reason to do the math (we want to figure something out rather than just practicing techniques). This is the complete opposite to what I normally hear students say. What I found interesting is that many of the problems presented were unrealistic, typical math word problems that would never actually happen in real life. I wonder if the SNAP math fairs could move towards students solving problems that they would actually have.
No comments:
Post a Comment