My students need a document camera and various games including Mancala, Rubik's cubes for experiential learning to develop strategies they will later prove using maths.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Andrea's classroom raised $714
This project is fully funded
My Students
Every day, we start the class together with a puzzle. The goal of the puzzle is to start as a warm up to the course. We discuss strategies and the mathematical reasoning necessary to solve the puzzle. Then, depending on the day, we dive into a lesson and/or play a correlated game.
The majority (>95%) of the students in my school transfer into the school because they were dissatisfied with their previous high school.
Our school strives to be diverse: socioeconomically, racially, ethnically, demonstrated skills sets. We mix our classrooms based on student needs and interests, not by grade level or tracking.
Math is one of the most dreaded subjects for many (but not all) of my students. A combination of rote learning and poor previous experiences lead entirely capable students away from a positive relationship with mathematics.
Proofs & Games is an elective course with a pre-requisite of introductory Algebra. Advanced students (those who have taken Calculus) and intermediate students (those who have only completed Algebra 1) work together in the course. The course is experiential and inquiry-based, as well as student driven. While a curriculum is set in place to discuss various types of proofs, students' final projects are based on their interests.
My Project
Students will be using the various games, to discover, then confirm mathematically-based strategies for these games. We will analyze each game mathematically, and use proofs to demonstrate definitively (when possible) the ideal strategy. Likewise, we will use proofs to show that there is not always one ideal strategy.
In previous incarnations of this course, students were limited in the amount of materials available, which slowed students' abilities to experience and then draw their own conclusions. This meant not every student could explore the same puzzles at the same time. I hope with enough of each game, small groups will be able to come to their own mathematical conclusions through experience as opposed to observation.
The document camera will be used as a resource to show student work. In addition to written work, which we will workshop, the document camera will allow students to illustrate their points with a specific game while explaining during presentations.
Former students who have taken this course have suggested that we explore different games and acquire more materials.
These students were excited to be in class and found it to be a safe place for logical thinking, and also an enjoyable mathematical experience.
Everybody is capable of learning mathematics. I want to have more students take this course, and positively reconnect students with mathematics, finding both its beauty and its applications.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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