It's That Time Of Year.

 

At school, we just started doing the annual standardized testing. The state I live in, just changed their test again and have the yearly one now working as an extension of the others.  It feels as if the students are being tested so many times during the school year that by this time of the year, they are tired of it and do not do their best on this one.

I really dislike these tests because I usually end up working with students who are behind due to where they live and their socioeconomic status. In addition, many students are classified as English Language Learners so their scores tend to be below proficient anyway.  Furthermore, after two years of missing school due to COVID, they are behind where they should be.

I did a search on standardized tests and if they are really effective.  I found lots of articles from as early as the 1990's stating these tests do not accurately reflect a student's knowledge, especially since it does not look at creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, or artistic ability.  In fact, many claim that these tests only test a small amount of student knowledge and since most questions are multiple choice or true or false, the questions are actually evaluating rote knowledge of math, science, and English.

Even as early as 2004, people were arguing that comparing results of standardized tests from year to year does not provide an accurate picture and the math used to figure out how much growth may be totally off and create a misleading picture.  

Furthermore, these tests are not necessarily fair since the tests do not account for learning disabilities, language barriers, personal struggles, and a lack of standard American conventions.  Many times, standardized tests place students from lower socioeconomic groups at a disadvantage.  In addition, students who suffer from test taking anxiety tend to shut down and not do well.

The thing is that I know what my students can do and where many of them are without the use these tests.  I know one teacher who looked at what standards were tested the previous year and focused her teaching on that.  When her students took the standardized test, they didn't do as well because the test didn't test about half of the standards from the previous year. 

 I don't believe teaching to the test is right but if we continue these test, I will continue teaching my students strategies to help them do better on the test.  Those will do more good than anything else. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Reciprocal Peer Tutoring.

 

Today, we'll explore using reciprocal tutoring in the math classroom.  First thing to know is that reciprocal tutoring is not reciprocal teaching.  Reciprocal teaching is a technique used to teach reading and reading comprehension so we want to use reciprocal tutoring.  Reciprocal tutoring is where two students are paired up and one of the two acts as the tutor to begin with. Another time, the other student acts as tutor instead. 

Reciprocal tutoring is a highly rated method that helps increase student achievement and has been studied for several decades..  It is best used to review information while providing extra practice of a topic or concept. In this intervention strategy, grouped students switch between the role of tutor and tutee so one is teaching and the other(s) are learning.  It is not a good choice to introduce new material, only for reviewing and practicing.

If done correctly, reciprocal tutoring increases student achievement while decreasing distracting or off task behavior.  Often this is due to the one on one attention of the tutor to the tutee and the fact they are engaged in their learning.  In addition, it appears that reciprocal tutoring helps decrease math anxiety.  

Reciprocal peer tutoring can be done through the whole class at the same time.  This is set up like a game so as each pair breaks up into the tutor and tutee, they work through specific academic tasks and as they get correct answers, they gain points. As one question is answered, the two switch so the tutor becomes the tutee and the tutee, the tutor.  The pair with the most points are considered the winners.  

Another possibility is for older students to work with younger students.  In this scenario, the older student is the tutor while the younger one is the tutee. In this situation, the older students need a bit of guidance so they know how to provide tutoring for the younger student.

There is also the situation where a high performing student is matched with a low performing student so one is the coach and the other is the tutee.  For this situation, students work on skills the lower performing student needs to practice.  It is important to regularly switch pairs around so that everyone has the opportunity to be both the coach and the tutee.

In order to implement reciprocal peer tutoring, one needs to decide the type of tutoring that is needed in the room, pair students up based on the desired outcome, explain expectations for each role and teach how it is to be done. Finally, monitor the reciprocal tutoring as it is being done, award points if that is part of your program, and switch pairs as needed. 

If you noticed, many parts of the process for reciprocal peer tutoring is the same for regular peer tutoring but it is not exactly the same because the tutor and tutee change so everyone gets to be both. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

The Relationship Between Coloring By Numbers And Fractions.

About once a week, I check out various sites for the latest news in Math.  Sometimes, I find something only a few days old, other times it is a bit older but the articles all sound interesting.  This time, I found an article that talks about how coloring by numbers reveals patterns in fractions.  I remember doing one of those color by number paintings when I was a child.  I don't remember what it was but I'm sure it wasn't a horse.

This particular discovery is found in the field of Ramsey Theory.  The field of Ramsey Theory focuses on the idea that mathematics structure exists within hostile circumstances. So what they've do is to break apart large groups of numbers such as integers, or slice up connections between points to show that certain structures cannot be avoided.

One way they do this is to select several colors and assign them to every number in a collection.  Even if you do it in a random or chaotic way, certain patterns will emerge as long as you use a finite number of colors and have a large group of numbers. Ramsey Theorists work on finding these patterns by looking for groups of numbers who have been assigned the same color.

The first result came back in 1916 when Issai Schur showed that no matter how you color the natural numbers, aka the positive integers, there will be at least one pair of x and y such that the x, y, and sum of x + y are all the same color. Then in 1974, another mathematician, Hindman, extended this result to an infinite subset of integers and proved that no matter how the natural numbers are colored (with a finite number of colors) the integers are all the same color and the sums are also this color.  These set resemble even numbers.

Hindman believes that it is possible to find an arbitrarily large set of numbers with the same color which will contain both its sums and products. This is based on how addition and multiplication are related and working with both sums and products at one time can be a bit difficult. However, as long as you limit this to rational numbers which are what fractions are, and voila, colors begin to appear frequently. This allows for the full {x, y, x + y, and xy}

So cool.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warm-up

 

If 12 feet of snow melts down to 1 inch of water, how much water do you have if you have 596 inches of snow.

Warm-up

 

If there are 3.04 trillion trees in the world and 27,000 are cut down every day, how long will it take to use up all the trees if no more are planted?

Preparing Students To Peer Tutor.

 

We all know that peer tutoring is a great thing to include in the classroom but it is not something you want to just do otherwise one student will give the other the answers.  They will tell you they are tutoring but that isn't it.  To avoid this, one needs to prepare the students so they really tutor.

The first step is to select the students who will be tutors.  You want students who are either good at math or have learned the material well enough to teach it and they should be able to verbalize the process so they communicate well. They should also be willing to be tutors.

Next, one should communicate expectations clearly to both the tutors and those who will be tutored. Expectations should include expected behavior, how the tutoring will be done, what the job of the tutor and tutoree will be so each knows what they will be doing, and the time each session should last.

Speaking of communicating, the tutor needs to be taught how to communicate effectively using techniques such as leaning to ask open ended questions, explain the material, using active listening, and learning to give appropriate feedback.  Giving appropriate feedback can be difficult for teens and preteens.  

In addition, one needs to provide the appropriate materials such as answer keys for worksheets, books, any online resources, whiteboards, etc so the session goes well and the tutor is able to provide the necessary instruction.  One of the last things the teacher should do is to monitor the pairs to make sure the tutor is doing a proper job.

The bottom line is that most students need to be taught how to tutor another student. One way is to provide information on how the tutoring should be done. It is important to show the students how to tutor and what one does during the session.  In other words, we have to train the tutors since they are not teachers.  It is also good  to have students role-play so they learn how to tutor, communicate, and practice giving both corrective and positive feedback.

Another item is to provide tutors with prompts they can use when they need to give feedback should the tutee make a mistake, praise for when they do well, questions to help the tutor guide the tutee to the answer, and questions to help the tutee explain their thinking.  

To help reinforce tutoring expectations, reward system be set up to reinforce the expectations for the tutor.  It might be the tutor gets a ticket every time they do a good job and once a week have a drawing for a small prize.  This should be enough to get started.  Stay tuned for something called reciprocal peer tutoring next week.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great weekend.

Why Use Peer Tutoring.

 

As we know, peer tutoring is considered an effective method to use in the classroom because both students involved in the process benefit from it.  I'll be examining this topic today and Friday because it is so important.  Today, we'll look at the benefits and advantages and on Friday we'll look at what you need to do to ensure that peer tutoring works in your classroom. 

First off, students who read and discuss the material with each other tend to remember more and score higher on assessments.  Although the research was done in regard to literacy, the basis should still work in the mathematics classroom because they are reading a specific type of passage.  

In addition, students who worked together as pairs or in groups did better on tests that involved reasoning and critical thinking because they become active learners when they discuss and put the concepts into their own words.  Peer tutoring also helps students improve their communication skills and confidence since those involved in peer tutoring get immediate clarification and feedback.  This is also true when at-risk students use peer tutoring. 

Furthermore, many students also work better with peers than with adult figures.  Consequently, students are more likely to ask questions of each other and more likely to work through a challenging math problem because they are less likely to be teased by others.  

In math, using peer tutoring can help strengthen student knowledge, convert knowledge from short term to long term memory, allows for better mathematical communication when one student explains to the other and can decrease student math anxiety.  

On the other hand, peer tutoring needs to be implemented in a way that avoids some of the pitfalls such as students not providing good feedback or criticizing, or matching two students who are more likely to talk rather than work, In addition, many times, peer tutoring is set up so it is obvious who is the tutor or the tutee and that can make it more difficult.

Fortunately, there are ways to set things up so that much of this does not happen.  Check back Friday to see how one can set up peer tutoring in the classroom so it is more effective.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Collaboration In The Math Classroom.

 I am a firm believer in letting students work together on their math because they are really great at helping each other.  In addition, I have 12 students in my classroom who need math instruction from grades 7 to 11 and by having them collaborate, I can get around to instruct and help every one.

Encouraging students to collaborate in the math classroom is good because it promotes active learning among students. When they collaborate, they are engaged actively in learning rather than being passive learners. In addition, they tend to ask questions, share ideas and participate when they work in groups.

Working together also allows students to improve their problem solving skills because they are able to share different approaches and strategies which can lead to a deeper understanding of the concepts they are learning.  In addition, working together helps foster communications among students since they have to explain their thinking and reasoning.  Furthermore, they have to practice active listening as other students explain their ideas, thinking, and reasoning. 

When students collaborate, it makes math more fun and engaging because they are exploring concepts in a more engaging and dynamic way which helps increase their motivation and interest. Collaboration also helps students develop certain social and emotional skills such as teamwork, empathy, and respect for other peoples thoughts and ideas.

Fortunately, there are multiple ways you can use collaboration in your classroom.  One way is to assign students to groups to work on math problems or projects.  This way they explore the concepts together in more depth.  Another way is to allow students to act as peer tutors so the student who knows the material can work with one who is struggling.  When they practice peer tutoring, they reinforce their own knowledge and understanding of the topic.

Encourage classroom discussions by posing open ended questions that require critical thinking to answer. When answering these types of questions, students end up sharing their though processes with each other and learn from one another. Think about assigning collaborative projects such as creating a math based game, or solving a real world problem since its another way of promoting teamwork and collaboration among students.

Finally, look at using technology such as online discussion boards, whiteboards, or shared documents so they can communicate and collaborate more effectively.  By encouraging collaboration, students develop problem solving skills while building confidence and deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warmup

 If there are 2.2 pounds in a kilogram and this pumpkin weighs 2560 pounds, how many kilograms is that?

Warm-up

 If the world record for the heaviest pumpkin is 2560 pounds.  How many tons is that?

Finding Order In Crowds.

 

Most of the time, I am in a place where a crowd is three or four people but when I bust loose and head for the big city, I end up in the midst of those huge crowds.  You know the ones where it is one big chaotic mess but all the pedestrians tend to fall into lanes of traffic without talking to each other, without signs, with nothing more than an awareness of others.

Some folks over at the University of Bath developed a new theory on how the people within chaotic crowds manage to fall into lanes that are either curved or straight.  In fact, they can explain why this happens and whether the lines will be straight or curved.  It even takes into account when people pass on the "wrong" side.

The publication of this theory is in the field of active matter which is the study of group behavior in interacting populations ranging from bacteria to herds of animals.  In addition, it reveals a new class of structures for daily life that have previously been unnoticed. They also relied on humans to help test this theory rather than relying on computer modeling.  

They set up an arena to mimic various locations with entrance and exit gates such as the Kings Cross Station in London, had people walk through it and video taped their interactions.  Once they had the video footage, they were able to identify mathematical patterns in real life.  Although the crowd appeared to be chaotic as they passed through the two gates, one could see structure hidden inside. They discovered that the layout of the area determined if the lines were straight or curved in a line such as a parabola, ellipses, or hyperbolas. 

What made this study different is that the researchers based their approach on Albert Einstein's theory of Brownian motion which allowed them to make predictions that could be tested. It turned out their theory agreed with the numerical simulations for colliding particles so they took it a step further and tested it on humans.

They concluded that lane formation does not require specific thought. It happens spontaneously when two groups cross paths within a crowded space and are trying to avoid hitting each other. All those individual decisions result in lines forming without people being aware they are in lines. If they implemented certain traffic rules such as passing only on the right, the structure of the lanes changed. 

This theory will work when applied to a variety of situations.  I found this to be absolutely awesome.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great weekend.

Seasonal Learning Loss

 

I was doing some deep diving into the learning loss students experienced during COVID and ran across seasonal learning loss which is also known as summer learning loss. Researchers have been looking at this phenonium since 1906. Researchers concluded that students achievement scores dropped by one month of school learning by the end of summer holidays.  Specifically, students lose between 17 and 34 percent of the previous school's gains. It is also noted that if a student loses ground over one summer, they are more likely to loose more ground is subsequent summers. In addition, math scores drop more than reading scores, and there is more loss experienced in the upper grades.

Research also indicates loss and gain cannot be predicted by socioeconomic, gender, race, or location. There has been a theory proposed where students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged tend to lose ground over the summer because they do not have the same access to resources students belonging to a higher socioeconomic group has.  This slows down their retention.

Seasonal learning loss occurs because students do not usually practice their reading and math skills over summer holidays.  Traditionally schools have used summer schools to help slow down or prevent learning loss but there are indications that middle income students had better results than lower income students. In addition, the programs with the best results for any income group were programs that followed research based programs and where students attended consistently.  

Furthermore, the cost of running an effective summer program are sometimes not as economically viable as those in the regular school year.  Often school districts find it difficult to engage the number of teachers needed to run the problems and to convince parents to send their children to these programs.  Sometimes it makes more sense to utilize programs that send work home via the mail to have students complete and mail back. If the work is not sent back, teachers contact the home to check on students.

Fortunately, there are some things parents can do to help their students.  One is to set aside 15 to 30 minutes a day to have their children read.  If the child is reading below level, parents can read with them to help and to provide an audience.  As for math, if children work three to four problems a day, it can keep a student's skills from getting rusty.  One can buy workbooks, use packets sent home from school, or visit online to find them.  

If parents knew that investing just an hour a day on doing reading and math can help their child retain more and that they'll be better prepared for the new school year, they might be willing to take time to work with their children.  I think this is a bit of the "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and would be awesome.  This might just help students make up some of the learning loss experienced during COVID.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Adolescents Who Stop Taking Math Classes Experience Decrease In Important Brain Chemical.

 

I was off looking up brain development when I came across this article published in Science News.  The study was published on June 7, 2021 and was done by scientists at the University of Oxford. What they concluded was that young folks who quit taking math experience a decrease in production of a brain chemical that is important to their brain development. The decrease of this brain chemical occurred in the part of the brain that does math, problem solving, memory, and reasoning.

This means that teens who decided to quit taking math at the age of 16, ended up at a greater disadvantage in both their brain and cognitive development when compared with those who continued to take math classes.  When all students were taking math classes, scientists discovered they all had about the same amount of gamma Amniobutyric acid which is needed for brain plasticity.  However, when scientists tested students later after some quit taking math, they were able to tell who still was in a math class based on the levels of this brain chemical regardless of cognitive abilities.

It is well known that the brain undergoes important brain and cognitive changes during adolescence. When students quit studying math, they loose a certain amount of ground in world where math is associated with everything from employment, to socioeconomic status, to mental and physical health.  This study shows a link between the biology of the brain and education.

One of the researchers mentioned that they don't know if this can be prevented and what the long term implications are but the study was completed before COVID hit. Since COVID interrupted much of the education in this country and around the world, they are wondering how this will effect the development of the brain and cognitive abilities of children and adolescents.  

When I saw this study, I wondered if COVID interrupting education could lead to that happening to most of our students.  It could explain some of the issues I see in the classroom today.  I know they are often behind but I didn't realize there was a connection between taking math and the production of an important brain chemical.  It would be interesting if they redid the study with students to see if they observe the same type of thing in students who had to drop math due to COVID. I'd love to hear what you think.  Let me know.  Have a great day.

Warmup

 If there is one dog for every 16 people and there are at least 430 million dogs in the world, what is the worlds population?

Warm Up

 If a jiffy is 1/100 th of a second, how many jiffys are in a second, a minute, or an hour?

Conceptual Understanding Versus Procedural Fluency.

 

I am from the days when you learned to solve mathematical problems by being fluent in knowing how to solve the types of problems.  I didn't have to know that when I solved a one step equation, I was finding a point on a line or that the number in front of the variable in the linear equation represented the slope no matter whether it was a business application or a standard y = 3x + 2 solved in isolation.

It is only since I became a teacher that I've seen these connections rather than working each topic in isolation.  So today, I'm looking at conceptual understanding versus procedural fluency.  

Procedural fluency is the ability to memorizing the steps to solve an equation and doing the computation without necessarily understanding the concept behind the math.  This is like seeing a one step equation and knowing the steps to find the unknown value without knowing what the result represents.  Learning math this way seldom allows students to make deep connections

Conceptual understanding connects the procedures with understanding the concept behind them. In other words, when a person solves a math problem they know how to solve it, why certain steps carried out, and why the approach worked. It actually requires higher depths of knowledge because of the connections being made.

In fact, deep conceptual understanding is defined as students having the ability to transfer learning or knowledge from one lesson or subject to another, to learn through trial and error, consider how to solve a problem rather than just applying a procedure, and explain the thinking that went into solving it.  This is why developing conceptual understanding is important.

It is important to know that most text books have questions that focus on developing procedural fluency  so as a teacher it is important to spend time helping students develop conceptual understanding. This can be done by readjusting questions so they more open.  For instance, rather than asking a student to find the area and perimeter of a specific 15 by 8 rectangle, ask students to find a rectangle with an area of 36 square units and a perimeter of 30 units.  The second way has students work with their knowledge of area and perimeter to determine various rectangles that meet the criteria stated. 

So when you are teaching the topic, look at ways you can change some of the problems from being strictly procedural to requiring conceptual knowledge.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great weekend.

Why Use Sudoku In Math Class.

The past few weeks have been challenging.  Since over half my kids have been out with either Covid or a very bad flu bug so rather than moving on, I've had to kind of stall but teach at the same time.  I have used this time to teach things like Box and Whisker plots or Stem and Leaf plots since I don't usually get a chance to cover those.  So this past Friday, I took time to teach my students how to do Sudoku.

I thought it would be a nice way to have students work on their problem solving but it turns out that sudoku actually helps students in more ways than expected.

To begin with, sudoku is not a mathematically based puzzle, rather it is a logic based puzzle because you have to think about which possibilities are the ones that will work best in the blank spaces.  In addition, there are millions and millions of free puzzles available to use so students will never run out.  Although it was invented by an American in 1979, it was not until 1984 that it received its name in Japan.  This is why people think it originated in Japan.

When students work sudoku's, they are developing their logic skills. In addition, it has been found that playing sudoku and solving equations use the same deduction skills by making deductive inferences. These are the same skills used to solve any complex mathematical problem.   Sudoku also helps student improve their analytical thinking skills. Since sudoku helps improve reasoning abilities, it helps students develop more of an interest in math.

Furthermore, it helps students develop staying power or mental rigor to solve problems. It also helps improve memory and students tend to pay better attention.  They get to practice making inferences and drawing conclusions.  So lets look at how sudoku can be used in the classroom.

First, it can be used as a whole class activity by teaching students how to work the sudoku puzzles.  Teachers can use one on the board, the screen, or in paper.  Next, having students work sudoku helps improve mathematical conversations by asking students how they arrived at using a certain number or letting them help another student when they get stuck.

Several students asked that I keep a pile of puzzles they can do when they are finished with assignments.  Never be afraid of trying something new.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Japanese ESport High School Catching Dropouts.

 

The other day, I heard something that make my ears perk up.  There was some talk about a new high school in Japan that was opening soon.  It was designed to train professional gamers while making sure they got a regular education and there was a side result that was fascinating.

In Japan, groups often start specialized schools for a specific goal.  A new high school, the first specialized esport one- just opened.  Their original idea was to attract the best and brightest players to both educate and prepare them for a career in professional esports, also known as gaming. 

Many high school students drop out due to being bored, being bullied, disliked teachers, or just hated the rules. There is an adherence to following of the rules and requiring students to meet a specific ideal, even to the point of making students dye brown hair black.  Why do to school if you don't think your needs were being met. Most schools do not offer the services of social workers, phycologists, or counselors. 

Back in December of 2021, this new school made an announcement that it would soon be opening its doors.  It offered a limited number of students the chance to train for competing at video games while studying traditional  academic subjects.  This would be like a school for Olympic skiers, or basketball players so they can improve their chances of making various teams.

What the new school discovered was something unexpected.  They received applications from many dropouts who had spent time playing video games and now wanted a chance to get their playing levels up to national or international levels needed to win competitions. 

In general, the parents who can afford to send their children to private schools do so.  They look for schools where students have more input in their education but for this esport school, most of the students who applied, found their own way.  Although the students were onboard, the parents had to be convinced this was more than just a last resort. At a presentation in February 2022, parents were shown that all instruction met national, the prospects for professional gamers, and video game addiction.  When school opened in April of 2022, a group of two dozen students arrived at the opening day ceremonies.  

The school took over the floor of a building and looks like its half spaceship, half motherboard with glass floors and a ceiling of green neon tubes.  It's very modernistic look supported the focus of the school.  As far as instruction, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday students learn about competition strategies for winning games like Fortnight. On Tuesday and Thursday, students have instruction in traditional topics such as math and English.  

The school is also different in that it starts later in the day, around 10 am and they are not required to wear uniforms.  In addition, the school does not stress if students are tardy or don't even show for all the academic classes because they have dropped out and they are at least coming to class.  The philosophy behind the school is to draw them in with the gaming and show them school can be fun so they are more willing to come in.

The truth is that very few will ever become professional gamers but the school is motivating students to come back to school and learn.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warm-up

 

If the space shuttle could travel to the sun, it would take about 220 days to fly 92 million miles.  How far was the space shuttle traveling each day? Each hour?

Warm-up

 

If the manufacturers of the Monopoly game have made more than 5 billion green houses since 1935, how many houses do they make a year?

Jumping Beans Head Towards The Shade! Proven Mathematically.

 

You read that right! The headline is absolutely correct.  If you remember as a kid, those jumping beans would move all over they place. The secret was the twitchy moth larvae inside the seed pod that caused it to move.  If the larvae lived long enough the bean would eventually make its way to the shade.

According to a study, if the bean ends up in a nice sunny spot where it could get hot and over heat, the larvae twitches so it moves a short distance. This lead to someone wondering what the probability of finding shade is.  Of course, before the mathematics could be formulated, the beans had to be observed.  

The scientists purchased jumping beans from a commercial supplier, placed them on specially built platform that kept the temperature about the same all over and recorded the movement. They used an infra red thermometer to keep the platform at the optimum temperature to ensure the most amount of movement. They observed the 37 beans for a total of one hour and used the data to create a simulation of the beans. 

As a result, the scientists found that the beans jumped in a different direction every time and it was not based on any previous moves.  This type of movement is referred to as a random walk by mathematicians.  Although a random walk takes much longer, the beans will eventually visit every place on the surface and at some point end up in shade if the larvae lives long enough. This random walk is their method of trying to find shade.

Using the computer model, they checked to see if a less random pattern of movement would get them to shade more efficiently.  One thought was if the bean traveled in one direction, it would find shade sooner if it chose the correct direction, otherwise they might never find shade.  The model indicated that a less random pattern of movement allowed the jumping bean to find shade faster than the random walk.  However, more beans survived who used the random walking pattern versus the less random pattern of movement.

So the scientists concluded that although the random walk takes longer because they are always randomly switching direction, more larvae in the beans survive because of the increased chance of finding shade. So rather than being efficient, they chose a method that provides a better chance of survival for all.  

I found this quite interesting.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

What To Look For In Math Games.

At some point, we like to use games as a way of learning. Some games are better than others so it is important to look for certain things which make the game more exciting. In today's entry, we'll look at things to look for that will make the game a better choice for the classroom.  One time, I downloaded an app for students to use to practice their multiplication tables and the only thing it had them do was practice problems in order such as 1 x 7 = 7, 2 x 7 = 14, etc and there was never a way the facts were mixed up.  

One reason to use games in the classroom is that they provide both structure and a process for children to practice their problem solving skills in order to reach a goal.  In addition, students are more likely to persist in order to solve a problem when playing a game because they are engaged.  

One important thing to look for in a game for the classroom is choice.  If there is no choice, students have little opportunity to develop strategy.  When they have to make a choice, they have to think about things, and worry about if they made the right choice once they've made a decision.  This adds richness to the classroom and the teacher can always ask them why they made a certain choice.  It promotes communication.

Secondly, math should be the engine that powers the game rather than using it as say the money in a game.  In other words, you have a racing game and students need to solve problems at a regular interval so they gain speed, refill empty gas tanks, or such activity.  This means the fun stops until the math problem is completed.  Instead, you want a game where the better a student becomes at the math, the better they become at the game and the more choices they have because they see more ways of doing things.

This is where teachers have to decide if it is game based learning or if it is gamification.  The first is where learning occurs within the framework of a game while the second is when game elements are added to make the experience more engaging.  So in the previous example the doing math to fill the car with gas is really more of gamification rather than game based learning. Look for a celebration of correct answers rather than leader boards, badges, and timed activities.

The game should also be simple to use and easy to play so you don't spend too much time going over rules and getting things set up.  The sooner students are in playing games the sooner they are having fun and are engaged.    You want students to learn as they are playing rather than being distracted by avatars, pets, or accessories they could earn.

You want to make sure the game is both engaging and challenging to the student. You want the student to feel as if they just need to get this one more thing and they will have it.  There is a fine line between being challenging enough and too challenging.  If it is too challenging, they will get discouraged.  It is like holding the carrot just out of reach but the carrot doesn't move away, it is allowed to get closer until you get it.

The game should have students stop and think so avoid multiple choice questions, or games that give the answer if the student is wrong, or work if a student just randomly clicks on things.  A good game will have research behind it that is easy to find and done by others. If all else fails, play the game yourself to see if it meets these criteria.

It is always nice to have ideas of what to look for in a math game so it really meets the needs of the students rather than just being a fun game.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.