Math theories challenge students to find solutionsArticle from the Montgomery Advertiser WETUMPKA -- What if, in math class, the teacher gave you a concept such as addition, but you had to come up with the rules, problems and answers yourself? That's the challenge students in Lisa Stubbs' pre-algebra class at Wetumpka Junior High face every day. Stubbs is using training she received at a math workshop that taught her new methods of instructing her students. "We are working with the Pythagorean theorem (A2 + B2 = C2)," she said. "We're looking at squares of each sides and how to find the hypotenuse. We're going to work on different lengths, but we're working on discovering it and proving it." In the past two summers, Stubbs and fellow math teachers at the junior high school went to Auburn University to receive training on a new program called Transforming East Alabama Mathematics -- Math (TEAM-Math). Teachers from Millbrook Middle/Junior High, Wetumpka Intermediate, Robinson Springs Elementary and Coosada Elementary also participated in the program. Gary Martin, Auburn University professor and TEAM-Math project director, said 85 percent of teachers who receive the training use TEAM-Math activities in class. "That's not bad. That's at least once a week," he said. "They are at least trying to implement the ideas. The biggest response is they keep coming. We held a quarterly meeting and 319 teachers came back on a Saturday morning for additional training." In her pre-algebra class Friday, Stubbs hung back while her students "discovered" the Pythagorean theorem by placing different shapes of triangle and square pieces into a large square. "In the past I've been more accustomed to giving a rule or formula, showing them examples of it, and then giving them some problems to work on," Stubbs said. "Now, we start with a situation, look for patterns and formulate rules together." Karen Monter, 14, wiggled triangular and square pieces together until she could find a perfect fit." I tried to put them in different parts and try to fix them and see if they make a balanced square," she said. "It's been hard (to figure out the Pythagorean theorem). The areas don't come out right; they are either too low or high. I just don't get the area." Marilyn Strutchens, an Auburn University professor and TEAM-Math co-director, said the program was started to better prepare students for college math. "A group of us, mathematicians, math educators and people from the school districts, were trying to figure out what we could do to improve student achievement coming into the university," she said. "We took about a year. We wanted to do something that would help all students." Stubbs is encouraged by the results of TEAM-Math thus far. "It seems to be working," she said. "On test scores we showed huge improvements from last year. We saw a 44 percent increase on test scores, which is surprising. We thought it would work, but we weren't sure how well." Monter said it gets easier as she plods along. Her classmates Ladarius Chapman, 14, and Rebecca Casey, 13, agreed. "We had to figure out areas of the box and we had to figure out how many other different ways we could put it together," he said. "It was sort of hard, but once you got use to it you could get done faster than you think." Casey said learning a new math concept without her teacher telling her the answers is different. Jacob Garnett, 13, he believes he will retain what he has learned. "I probably will because it will become easy," he said. Top | Other Headlines | Home page Last updated
Tuesday, September 20, 2005 10:30 AM
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