Maida, P., & Maida, M. (January 2006). How does your doughnut measure up?. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 11 (5), 212-219.
This article was about a middle school teacher who used doughnuts to apply math to real life. The students were asked to estimate the volume of the doughnut by approximating the volume of a cylinder minus the volume of a smaller cylinder from the center. This was a good introduction to calculus and finding exact volumes of different shapes. The children were more interested in the math because it was more hands-on. Each student got their own doughnut and needed to take the measurements themselves. The purpose of the activity to teach the students how to estimate using math and also how to incorporate math into real life situations.
I thought this article was really interesting and I think as a student I would enjoy using math more creatively by doing hands-on activities. It seemed like the students understood what they were doing in relating something they knew how to take the volume of to something more obscurely shaped. The only problem I saw with this activity was the germ factor. I bet it was really unsanitary having students touch all of these doughnuts with different rulers and such.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Blog 6
Switzer, M. J. (2010) Mathematics teaching in the middle school. Bridging the Math Gap, 15 (7), 400-407.
This paper discussed how to be effective in teaching students after they transitioned from elementry school to middle school or middle school to high school. Some ideas the paper presented in order for teachers to be more effective in teaching during the transitory stages of a student's career were knowing different ways to do the same concept and also being able to relate new and old concepts. It is important for teachers to know different ways to do the same concept because students come from previous teachers and schools where many different methods are used to find the same solution, when the different methods are understood, more students can be helped. By relating old and new concepts students get a better understanding of the new concept because they are somewhat familiar with the old. An example the article gave was using tiles to solve multiplication problems and also to solve equations.
I agree with the article, I think it is very important to be aware of the difficulties of transfering to the next level of schooling. This article was effective in allowing teachers to realize what might cause problems for new students and provided ways to avoid these problems. I did wish however, that the article provided more examples of possible problems and solutions. For example if students came from different previous schools, where some had a stronger background on a subject then others, how would a teacher be able to handle the differences in the class?
This paper discussed how to be effective in teaching students after they transitioned from elementry school to middle school or middle school to high school. Some ideas the paper presented in order for teachers to be more effective in teaching during the transitory stages of a student's career were knowing different ways to do the same concept and also being able to relate new and old concepts. It is important for teachers to know different ways to do the same concept because students come from previous teachers and schools where many different methods are used to find the same solution, when the different methods are understood, more students can be helped. By relating old and new concepts students get a better understanding of the new concept because they are somewhat familiar with the old. An example the article gave was using tiles to solve multiplication problems and also to solve equations.
I agree with the article, I think it is very important to be aware of the difficulties of transfering to the next level of schooling. This article was effective in allowing teachers to realize what might cause problems for new students and provided ways to avoid these problems. I did wish however, that the article provided more examples of possible problems and solutions. For example if students came from different previous schools, where some had a stronger background on a subject then others, how would a teacher be able to handle the differences in the class?
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