The Final Wrap Up

Week 6

We finally approached the last week of classes. As I look back at my six weeks of the intense math class, I see that I am leaving with a new mentality of math.

After this week I can discuss with my future students, the topic of math in nature and in life. Students should be able to see and make the connection that math is all around them. It can be found organically in nature even to their daily tasks whether they are cooking, baking, counting, measuring...math is everywhere!

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Looking at math and nature, what I found most interesting was the explanation that a snowflake follows maths principles and its hexagon shape basic on its molecules. Similar to that, spiders follow algorithms when creating their webs. Dolphins calculate with distance and time to find each other. Those are all facts that students will find interesting and may spark their curiosity when it comes to math. It may even persuade them to look into it further just by mere curiosity. 

After introducing students to math in nature, I think it would be compelling to make students realize that they use math on a daily basis without even knowing it. For example, when they are playing sports, they might be analyzing time, distance and angles when trying to hit a soccer ball or baseball. Or they could be using math when they are baking or helping to cook. These are are simple tasks that require math without even knowing it. 

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Another topic that I have discussed extensively in my blog is the idea of understanding the math problem and why you are using a certain formula instead of relying on memorizing the formula. That is a concept that I strongly feel for and know that I will be stressing it in my future classrooms. 

Lastly, the concept that surprisingly was brought to my attention was the idea of drawing and representing math problems. Even though I came from an art background, I never really drew out math problems simply because it was not encouraged when I was in school. Which in turn, made it hard for me to internalise the question and really understand what the question was asking because it was hard for me to grasp it. Looking forward, I can see the benefits of representing problems as it helps students visualize and internalise the question. It could also help with chunking the problem and breaking it down into simple steps. 

As a wrap up, these are 3 concepts that I have learned and will be implementing in to my future classroom. 

Thank you for tuning in, 

Until next time readers!