Connecting Math to Our Lives: Math for Fun /
Conectando las matemáticas a la vida: Matemáticas para diversión
(versión es español abajo)
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We invite everyone to fill out this Math for Fun
questionnaire!
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Dear Friends,
We all know students who do not enjoy math and who might even fear it. You yourself might have felt like that at some stage or another. Working in the Connecting Math to our Lives Project, we have learnt that this is not the fault of the students, but often because math is not taught in a fun and lively way. In this message we are asking you to look back on your experiences with math, and help us gather ideas about what makes math fun and meaningful.
Recently we received a note from Krystle and Maha, two 9th grade students from Lebanon. They wrote:
*Hello, Math is not all that fun anymore, it is getting harder and harder every year. I wish there was a way to make math a more interesting subject.*
For other students, the experience has been different. Sixteen year old Udara from Sri Lanka wrote to us:
*We need maths everyday, because without maths we can't do anything.Maths is not only a subject which we have to study at school. Maths is related to every activity in our life. With out maths, we can't even go to a shop and buy something,With out maths we can even use money either. So maths really plays an important role in our lives.*
Could you help Krystle and Maha with some suggestions to make math fun? Do you share Udara's feelings? In the Connecting Math to our Lives Project we strongly believe that math should not be just a subject that gets taught in school, disconnected from real life. If math is learnt in a way that shows us how we can use it everyday in our lives, and how it links up with all the other things we learn in school like geography, and history, and art, more students will understand math and do well in the subject.
Please help us in our investigation to gather ideas about what makes math fun by filling out our survey below. Everyone can participate in this survey: teachers, students of any age or from any country. You can respond individually or send a group response. We will post your results on our website, so that everyone can learn from your ideas and perspectives.
Please send your completed survey to orillas-math@igc.org
With warm regards,
Kristin Brown, Enid Figueroa, Gerda de
Klerk, Petru Dumitru, Tanesha Glover, Victor Soria
On-line Coordinators, "Connecting Math to
Our Lives"
MATH FOR FUN SURVEY
1. Your name
2. Your age
3. Your country
4. Please tell us about an experience you
had with math that was really fun and exciting:
Where
and when did this happen?
What
math skills were you learning at that moment?
What
did the teacher do? (if there was a teacher.)
What
did you (and any other students) do?
How
did it make you feel?
5. What suggestions do you have for
teachers to make math more fun
for students and to help students learn math?
6. Any other comments?
Gerda de Klerk
Center for Bilingual Education & Research
http://www.asu.edu/educ/cber
and
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
http://tikkun.ed.asu.edu/elps/
Arizona State University
Tel (W) 091-480-965-4346
Tel (H) 091-480-446-3672
gdk@asu.edu
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Dear Gerda and iearn maths participants,
Here are my answers to your questionnaire!
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MATH FOR FUN SURVEY
1. Your name - Udara Soysa
2. Your age -16+ (almost 17)
3. Your country- Sri Lanka
4. Please tell us about an experience you had with math that was really fun
and exciting:
Where and when did this happen? 11 months ago in our computer
class.(not in school)
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What math skills were you learning at that moment?Actually we were
doing some Visual Basics programming using maths
and "IF" & "LOOP" conditions.
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What did the teacher do? (if there was a teacher.) Actually
the lecturer asked me to give the class some exercises in the day before
the incident happen because he said he would be late to come to class.
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What did you (and any other students) do?When i was writing the exercise
in the white board some students said that they don't understand how to
write those programs. So I taught the whole class just as our lecturer do
and after the class my friends said my teaching was very good and they
understood what i taught. (later our lecturer also thanked me)
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How did it make you feel? I felt very proud about my self.
5. What suggestions do you have for teachers to make math more fun
for students and to help students learn math?
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For Teachers:-
1)Always try to give a individual attention to every student.
2)Teaching should not be boring and should always try to get the
attention of the students.
3)Use charts, projectors and things which can attract students.
4)Should always be encouraging and should not give students
the idea that maths is a hard subject.
5)Should understand the mentality of the students and try to
be like a mother/father for the students.
For Students:-
1) Always do your home work.(most important thing)
2)If there is something that you don't understand,don't hesitate
to ask the teacher's help after the class.
3)Always give your priority to subject matters because your
education is you future.
4)Do not cut classes.
5)Try to wake up little early in the morning and go through the
notes your teachers gave you yesterday.
6. Any other comments?
I would like to advice students to always keep a clean and well directed
mind.It really help you to concentrate well in your studies and also in
other activities in your life.
Ill directed mind can inflict- more harm
Than a life long hater or foe.
Well directed mind can help him -more than
Well wishers, parents, kith and kin.
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Best Wishes and love to Everyone!!!!!!!!!!
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Udara from Royal College Sri Lanka.
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