As someone who hated math in k-12 and excelled in reading, this is interesting to me. I have gotten more into math as a soon to be college graduate, (Econ/Acct) where I have learned I am not bad at math, and the math I have done for my degree, econometrics, calculus, were all interesting (though not on a high level). I think if I had been taught math as a child better than what I was, I would have moved more toward a CS/CE/data engineering degree instead of business. The math scared me off.
For my kids I look forward to trying to supplement their K-12 education (math especially) with other forms of education that I hope foster an interest in math. K-12 never really gave me a chance to find math interesting.
Does anyone have any great tools/resources to help supplement public math education?
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas
...which I found my self saying "yes" to out loud while reading it. It's premise is that people can learn better when there is an aspect they can interact with, and computers can provide simulated environments in which to explore concepts. Some of the examples given are younger kids exploring ideas in differential geometry through the use of turtle graphics. It is hard to get across in a small snippet of text, but I kept thinking that was how I wanted to be taught back in school. You compare how kids are self motivated to learn complex tasks like walking, talking, etc. but lose a lot of motivation when required to memorize dull facts about the interior angles of triangle.
There's not a lot of concrete actionable items here, other than getting that book, and maybe downloading a Logo interpreter to play with.
I've just started to work with teaching my own kids programming, so I don't have a lot of advice at this point, but I hope the book is as inspirational to you, as it was to me.
> You compare how kids are self motivated to learn complex tasks like walking, talking, etc. but lose a lot of motivation when required to memorize dull facts about the interior angles of triangle.
Funny you mention this. I remember being taught the sum of the internal angles, the pythagorean theorem and other facts by folding paper triangles.
Seymour Papert is a big name in Constructivist learning circles and "Mindstorms" is, indeed, a great text. Constructivist learning can work wonderfully for motivated learners, but it can run into problems with low-motivation/maturity and/or a results-oriented school system (which we have in the US).
In the US, students are expected to know/be able to perform a variety of standards-based tasks when they finish each grade. Constructivist learning is typically too exploratory and inefficient for these standards to be reliably fulfilled for every student within a definite period of time (and, as we know, teachers are expected to get every child over the line regardless of interest/ability/stability). Whether or not the learning is authentic, meaningful, long-lasting is besides the point - teachers are incentivized by standards-based testing to focus specifically and efficiently on those limited topics/skills.
Accordingly, you are more likely to see this style of learning in the earlier grades (simply because the expectations/rigor are different for primary vs secondary ed. with the former having a stronger focus on social-emotional learning than the latter) - but most often it springs out of informal learning environments (like home, after school clubs, camps, etc.). Constructivism is great if you're trying to foster creativity, self-management, and teamwork.
DragonBox is one of my favorites to teach basic algebra to my eight year old nephew: http://www.dragonboxapp.com/. It came out of a research project at U of Washington.
I also love doing Maker projects because I believe the best way to teach math is to build real-world, functional things that show the end purpose of math. For example, I have done this workshop with my nephew too which really engaged his interest in math and STEM more broadly: http://www.einsteinsworkshop.com/now-enrolling.
My 5 and 7 year old LOVE DragonBox. (I would be bragging more, but they get into pretty big fights over whose turn it is.) The way it eased them into algebra is so simple that it is genius.
All math should be that approachable.
Here is a fun game then... BTW you happen to be doing math.
My 8 year old son hates math. I've tried introducing him to some of the apps like Scratch and its ilk, but he's not interested. The closest I've successfully come is using the blocks in Minecraft to illustrate why/how multiplication is not simply repeated addition.
Take a look at DragonBox (http://www.dragonboxapp.com/). It does a great job of presenting algebra as more than just arithmetic and wrote memorization.
For my kids I look forward to trying to supplement their K-12 education (math especially) with other forms of education that I hope foster an interest in math. K-12 never really gave me a chance to find math interesting.
Does anyone have any great tools/resources to help supplement public math education?