Exploring, Adventuring, Traveling, Trying New Things If you haven't heard, the new trend these days is to go exploring and take advantage of every opportunity to travel. I'm a huge fan of this trend, as you can see above, because life is way too short to stay in one spot forever. Don't get stuck in the same city, state, or country for the rest of your life. God gave us a stinking HUGE world to explore full of different cultures, mountains, sunsets, beaches, trails, and adventures waiting for you to go on. And.... whats this got to do with math?LET YOUR STUDENTS EXPLORE I could honestly end the blog there because those four words sum up my thoughts pretty darn well. But I will continue for the sake of my grade and so you will get a better understanding of what exactly I am talking about. So let's start with a simple example... If I am teaching on quadratic functions, I can simply tell my students that the equation y=ax^2 is a reflection of the equation y=-ax^2 across the x-axis, show them an example and then move on. The students would most likely memorize that rule and move on. Cool. My students get to explore. What's the big deal? WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL? Oh, I'll fill you in. Peer to Peer Teaching When you give students the freedom to explore topics on their own and discover trends on their own, some will grasp it faster than others. This usually creates a problem in the class because your students are staggered in the learning process. BUT, with this system it actually enhances the process as a whole. Once a student sees the trend or figures out the relation they get to share it with their group members. So now, we see students essentially teaching themselves and then getting to teach their peers. Students teaching students brand new concepts. Pretty cool, right? As the teacher, you are facilitating these discussion and discoveries, nudging brains in the right direction, and making sure groups aren't getting stuck or frustrated. Once many students have caught on and discovered the trend, you can even have a student come to the front of the class and explain their discovery, which is a brand new concept, to the class. COME ON, THAT IS COOL! Recalling Information Imagine sitting down with a student to answer a question on previously learned material. You typically might say, "remember when I lectured on that" or "turn to your notes from that day." The student would flip through their notes and try to remember what you had said in class about that topic. Now imagine if you responded like this, "remember when Tyrone made this discovery in class? Can you remember what he said about that? If not, let's pull Tyrone over and see if he remembers." Again we would see that peer to peer learning as well as Tyrone benefitting from the experience because he's recalling previously learned information. In my own learning experience, I am able to retain information a lot better when I teach someone else the content or discover it myself. When I go back to study the material, I am able to recall information better because I can remember the times I made the discoveries about the content. I can also think back to the times that I had to figure out how to explain what I had just discovered to my peers and put it in a way that was understandable to them. In closing, I have only explained two ways that allowing students to explore new concepts benefits them and other students. The list could go on forever about how this enhances learning. This also makes teaching more fun and interesting because the students are engaged and doing hands on work that allows them the opportunity to take their education in their own hands. Therefore, I urge you to let your students explore. Let them take learning into their own hands. Empower your students because they are so capable and willing to take on this next adventure, they're just waiting for you to let them go.
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Step One: Google "famous mathematicians" Step Two: Count how many men will be named before the first woman Step Three: Did you get more than 15 men listed before one woman? I did! Isn't it crazy to think that a stereotype that originated before the 1800's is still lingering in our culture today? It's not as prevalent as it was back then, but there is no question that it still thrives in our world today. This stereotype says that women just aren't intelligent enough to learn/advance mathematics or in other words, a man's brain is just a better fit for mathematics. If you don't believe this is still alive in our society today, walk into any higher level math class at a university or just look up the guy to girl ratio at Michigan Tech. If I still don't have your attention, check out these statistics from the National Girls Collaborative Project,
Do I have your attention now?I'm not writing this post to point fingers at men in mathematics nor am I writing to place the blame of these stereotypes on anyone. I am writing this post to simply express my thoughts on why this still exists and how we can move forward to diminish what still exists in our mathematics classrooms. Here are my thoughts as to why this is still an issue:
What's the solution?Unfortunately, I don't believe there is simple fix to this problem. But I do believe we can take steps in the right direction by being less focused on men and more equally focused on women in mathematics. What do I mean by that statement? I didn't learn about women in mathematics until I came to college... 12 years of schooling before hearing of famous women in math. That's a problem. Let's look at Sophie Germain for a moment:
Despite the barriers that society put in front of her and even her own parents trying to prevent her from studying... she won the Prix Bordin award, proved Fermat's Last Theorem, and advanced mathematical knowledge on number theory. Women who made their mark in mathematics history should be credited way more than they are because they had to work ten times hard than anyone else just get people to look at or let alone value their work. Imagine if girls in 7th grade heard about this during math class? A woman excelling in mathematics against all odds and overcoming all barriers. I believe that opening the minds of young people to the history of both men and women in mathematics, allowing equality to flow through math lessons, and empowering our young women in mathematics could be revolutionary for change. a s p i r e t o i n s p i r eA great resource for displaying current women in mathematics and the STEM field is through NASA's aspire to inspire website and youtube videos. Watch the video above or click on the bottom below to learn more about this resource. In closing, I hope my opinion has empowered you to empower your female students. Women are just as capable in the mathematics field as anyone else and if you didn't know that before, you should know it now! Don't wait to make a change, start teaching about women now so can change can happen today.
Let's start TODAY. Make a change TODAY. Empower women TODAY. |
AuthorLauren C. Grimes Archives
November 2017
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