Hello all,
This week, The New York Times published an article, "Solving a Leafy Mathematical Mystery". I love this because it helps our adult learners seen that math helps us to make sense of the world. It isn't just based on problems or variables - there is a purpose. I plan to share this with my class; it will give context and we look for other plants that use math in them. The bonus of expanding on this topic? It becomes a science discussion, too.
What are some other ways you bring math to life beyond just problems, numbers, and variables? I am looking for new classroom ideas and would love to hear some of yours.
Help me to be more creative in my classrooms, PLEASE!
Brooke Istas
Comments
The New York Times resources are a recently found gem for me! I use there "What's going on in this graph?" series to spark math discussion in my classroom and teach pre-statistics concepts. My students LOVE it! https://www.nytimes.com/column/whats-going-on-in-this-graph
Last semester I also started integrating a few experiments into my ABE classroom that involved fractions and measurement concepts. I found a LOT of ideas here https://www.teachengineering.org/curriculum/browse?collection=Activities
I liked that at teachengineering.org you could filter the activities with math alignment or specific standards. I did a series of three biomedical themed lessons with experiments and it was such a breath of fresh air to watch my students learn math in a different way and contextualize it.