I don't know how to do it! Can you show me how?

Today the students started to work on their own designs that will be used to make them on a bead loom in the coming weeks. Some of the students didn't know where to start and they were overwhelmed by choosing their own design instead of copying a design. One of the students occupied most of my time because she kept asking for help. She didn't want to make her own design, instead she wanted to make a design that she did last week by looking at one of the templates on the computer. I started by asking her where the squares on one side of the design should be placed and she realized that the design was symmetrical and the squares were located at the same spot on each side of the design. Then we started to work together on the tree in the middle of the design. She realized that as she moved from the bottom of the tree to the top that the y-axis number got larger and x-axis values decreased. She continued this pattern to the top of the tree. Once she was done she realized that some of the beads in the tree design were not the colors that she wanted. She asked me how she could change it. I told her that I didn't know how to unless she removed them and started over. I went over to help another student and when I came back I noticed that she changed the colors of the beads. I asked her how she did that and she replied "I found out where they were located and I put in the locations and changed the color". It was amazing to see a student that did not know how to plot points on a graph figure out where a bead is located and change the color! There is hope for teaching students through exploration. Now the challenge is to take this knowledge and should her that she knows how to plot points when it is in the form of a math problem in school.

I Don't Want to Play Dodgeball, I Want to Keep Playing with the Bead Tool!

It has been a month since we started the after school program at the Arc Community Charter School and now the students are solely using the computers on their own. After the complaints last week that they did not have enough time on the computers we decided to spend the entire hour on the computers. The students ate their pizza as we hurried to set up the computers then we had the students start using the software. The students were simply told to pick a design on the right to recreate. The students still struggled with plotting points and it was difficult to not just tell them how to do it. I tried to have the students break the design into simple shapes and what points make up those shapes. Once they figured out what points made those shapes I would have them plot one point and look at the points around it. For instance, they put one point down then saw that six of the same color are stacked on top of it I would have them keep increasing the Y number and hit enter until it looked like the reference picture. This method worked for most students but of course there are always students that just want to do their own thing. One student wanted to make a star out of lines and I taught him about about how lines are made out of two points and how to find the start and end points. It was a struggle at first but by the end he was making symmetrical lines on his own and completed his own design. It was a very busy hour bouncing around helping students but the best part came when we lost track of time and realized it was time to cleanup. All of the students complained and wanted to stay there instead of playing dodge ball at the Troy Boys and Girls Club. This situation shows that these simple tools is just as engaging as a video or computer game yet the students are learning without even realizing it!

Can I Have the Website?

Today was the first day that we were using the computers. The hardest part of the computers was setting them up. The computers were located in a different room and none of them held a charge so they all had to be plugged in. Therefore while the students were eating pizza we had to quickly set up each computer and find power strips to plug in all twenty laptops. Once we finally got all of the computers plugged in and really to go we had the students find the website and go to the culture section. Once you put students on the internet it is hard to keep them on the webpage and not start playing games. Fortunately, we had some great help from a teacher at the Arc Community Charter School. We had student volunteer to read the culture sections online to review the idea of four fold symmetry. In the last fifteen minutes we had the students explore the Virtual Bead Loom tool. They did not quite understand how to plot points to create a design that they chose so it was a little difficult at times. For the students I help I had they place one bead anywhere then I had them change the X or Y to one less and see what happened. After a couple of times they figured out how to move in different directions. The last fifteen minutes flew by and then it was time to go to the Troy Boys and Girls Club but the students did not want to pack up and leave. One student even came up to me and asked if I could write down the website so he could use the tools at home. I feel that the fact the student wanted to learn more shows that the tools are successful. I can't wait to see what they learn in future sessions!

What is Symmetry?

The second week of the program was both exciting and crazy. Our after school program now has twenty students. There are mostly fourth graders but there is now one fifth grader and two sixth graders. With twenty students and three RPI student teachers it was quite a challenge to get them to pay attention when they were so eager to get started. While the students were eating their pizza we had a discussion about four-fold symmetry and Native American beading. The students were broken up into three groups and each group was given a picture of a Native American beaded pattern and were asked to fold the picture one so that it is the same on both sides. Once they completed that I asked them to fold it again so that it had the same image in all four boxes. This was also very easy for them. After this we broke them into three groups to teach them basic graph skills and plotting points. There were three stations, one just exploring the software on the computer, one making a four fold design and then finding the points that make up the design and finally one that the students had to direct other students to find an object on a grid. I was assigned the task to lead the last station and it was more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.

I placed an object in a square on the grid and asked one student to stand at a corner of the grid and assigned them a partner to give them directions to the object. The student at the corner was only allowed to move according to the directions the other student gave. At first the students just kept giving directions such as left, right, up and down. For instance, a typical dialog was left, left, up, up, up, right, right,up. Then I told the students to use numbers in their directions and I got four left, up five and right 2. Finally, I had the students try to use negative numbers when they were going left or down. This was hard for the students that have never seen negative numbers and without the help of X and Y axises, but eventually it was starting to come more naturally. After each student got the opportunity to be both the person giving directions and the person moving we switched to another activity. I gave students a bag of shapes and each shape had four copies of it. I then asked the students to work together to create a four-fold symmetry design. They started in one of the corners and made a design then the took a copy of each of the shapes and physically flipped them to make the other three corners. After doing this activity they really seemed to understand the the idea of four fold symmetry.

During both of these activities I struggled with the balance with telling them how to do something and letting them figure it out on their own. I found that the best practice is to just have them start and see where they go and tailor your lesson to that. This is because they start with what they know and understand and you can build from that. This removes the problem of teaching above them and then having to backtrack. I also understand that this is not ideal but I feel that it is an excellent practice if time allows.

So It Begins...

The hours leading up to the first day I was an emotional mess. I kept going through the lesson plan and the timeline of events leading up to the after school program. When the time finally arrived I ordered the pizza, picked everyone up and then we were on our way. At 2:30pm we arrived at the school, pizza in hand, to distribute pre-tests to all of the students in the fourth and fifth grade. Both of these items: the pizza and the pre-test are essential to our program. The pre-test consists of questions about plotting points and how to read a graph with X and Y axis. The same test is given out at the end of the program to the same students and the goal is to see if the students in the after school program ranked higher than the other students. Giving the students pizza is a trick that Professor Ron Eglash taught us and it helps to make the program feel like something different than school.

After the pre-test was taken and the pizza was being eaten, we went around the room and had each student say their name and what super power they wish they had. The goal of this activity was to get to know the students and their personalities before we started to teach them. Then we broke the students up into pairs and had them "interview" each other in the hope to bring up the idea of culture and how they are unique from one another. Culture is the idea behind most of these tools because it is something that most people can relate to because it is something natural for them. The goal is to take something that they know and are familiar with to show them how it relates to a topic, such as math that they are struggling with and realize that they already know how to do it.

After the interviews we had a discussion with the students about what made them similar and different. It was hard to get them off the topics of favorite food, TV show and movies. There was finally a breakthrough on the topic of culture when we asked what their favorite holiday was and why it was their favorite. Some of them talked about their favorite foods that were ethnic foods and the other students either agreed that they liked it or said that they never had it. At four pm the students were bussed to the Troy Boys and Girls and we met then there. At the Boys and Girls club we had the students draw a picture of how they were similar and different than their partners. While they were doing this we walked around to talk to them more to understand what they are interested in. I really enjoyed getting to know the students and I can tell that this is going to be a great semester! I can see their potential and willingness to learn and I hope that we can teach them more than they learn in class while still having a lot of fun!

Teaching Math Through Design

Hi my name is Katie and I am currently a senior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. The purpose of this blog is to highlight and reflect on my experience teaching the Culturally Situated Design Tools at the Ark Community Charter School in Troy, NY. I was first introduced to the tools last year during Product Design & Innovation Studio 5 with professor Ron Eglash. Prior to the class, he developed them with the help of previous students and we were told to test them and give some feedback. I enjoyed those tools greatly and I saw the potential with them upon the first interaction. During that year I was involved in Design Your Future Camp at the Arts Center in downtown Troy, NY. It was a week long camp tailored around the idea that math and design are related and that we could get students interested in math through design. Each day of the camp was split into two parts. Before lunch the students would go on the computers and use one of the software on the Culturally Situated Design Tools and make a design of their choosing. Right before lunch we would work with the student to choose their favorite design and print it. After a hour lunch the students would go back and use the printed to design to create a piece of artwork. This camp was very successful and the students began to realize that math is not just about numbers and solving equations but instead that math is all around them and they use it everyday without realizing it. This simple notion gave them confidence to go back to school with a new appreciation of why math is important to learn.

Right after classes ended last year I had another experience with the Culturally Situated Design Tools at the Albany Boys and Girls Club. I spent a few weeks using the Anishinaabe Arcs to teach the students how to plot points and learn about parabolas. After the students created their own designs on the computer the points of all design were recorded and plotted on graph paper. Once all of the points were plotted students used pipe cleaners cut to the appropriate length to connect the points across from each other to create arcs. All of the arcs combine together to create a round house or a long house. After all of the students designers were created the students voted on which design they wanted to use to make a life size wigwam out of sticks. The hardest part of the project that was the balance between teaching the students directly and having them explore. This is the battle in any educational toy or education in general is how much do you tell the students versus how much do you let them learn on their own. I feel that this will be the hardest part of the lesson at the Ark Community Charter School this fall with our after school program.

The plan so far for the first session is to get to know the students and have them interview each other to see what they have in common. Then the students are going to compare and contrast each other and draw a picture about what makes them unique and the similarities they have. I am really excited for this program to start because I love teaching and I can not wait to get more experience but I will admit that I am nervous that I will not be good enough.