While the COVID-19 pandemic is a terrible thing, math teachers love to talk about it. It’s all about the math! Ask your teacher about exponential growth and flattening the curve.
Learning took on a much different look when school was suspended due to the COVID virus.
Mr. Lupu taught some math concepts by creating several YouTube videos. Mr. Lupu normally acts goofy in class. So, he continued acting silly during remote learning to get his students engaged. He usually showed up as some weird character. Then, he continued with the day’s lesson.
Earlier This Year
The circumference (perimeter) of a circle can be measured using the formula
C= π x Diameter.
Students in Mr. Lupu’s Essential Math class set out to see if this is true by manually measuring the perimeter of a variety of circular objects using a string and a ruler. Then they applied the formula and compared their manual results to formula results.
Below is Nate’s results.
Nate- “I am happy with my results. My manual measurements were close to the answers derived from the circumference formula. I probably could have measured more accurately on some, but I may have stretched the string a little during measuring. I am now convinced that Circumference does equal π x D”
Group Work in Math?
Early in the semester, Mrs Kammerlock worked with students to develop their team work skills so that they could work together during math class. Photos below show students participating in an activity where they had to learn to work together to efficiently solve the problem at hand. Everyone was actively engaged working together to benefit the group as a whole and at the end of the activity students all came out stronger and with more knowledge than had they completed the activity alone. We talk about what group work in math looks like and how they can successfully work together in teams in class and learn from each other. Ideas included:
- All group members were focused and only talking to members of their group.
- They weren’t distracted by others in the class (even the teacher – they didn’t even know I was taking pictures!)
- Group members are close and looking at each other – heads together (another great team building/learning activity to share about another day).
- Group members were communicating – asking questions and sharing ideas.
- Every group member participated; everyone was included.
- Everyone is working on the assigned task.
- The group made a plan before beginning the task.
- Group members support each other – help and encouragement.
- Groups worke the entire time; they are persistent and kept working even if they were struggling.
These skills can be applied anywhere but in math class allows us to share our learning and teach each other. A quote I have heard in the past was, “He/she who does the most talking does the most learning” – so to me it’s important to get the students talking and learning from each other!
The Best Math Class
Mr. K, AKA: “the coolest math teacher,” Had a lot of fun this year. His students learned about graphing and statistics; collecting their own data from a few games of laser tag and mini-golf at U-Puttz!
His dress-code may have [secretly] relaxed, but the learning never stopped during the remote learning response to COVID-19. The students of, “everyone’s favourite teacher,” continued engaging through online lessons, while Mr. K. answered relevant and random questions through a Q&A series, and he even showed off his sick (and absolutely-not-staged) soccer skills!
One of the best parts of math, is seeing and learning of all the different perspectives that students bring to the class.
Some students are great builders, visualizers, or problem solvers, and we put all of these strengths together to find solutions to challenges.
We often write math off pretty quickly, but if you give it a chance, like Mr. K’s wonderful students did, it can be some of the most memorable experiences you can have in high school!
(Plus, we’ll never make you do novel studies or write essays)
😉