Area math teachers hone their skills at SEE Math institutes
Rebecca Bilbo |
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Photo Feature of SEE Math Workshop
“Countdown, three… two… one… misfire!”
“Angle was pretty low there,” jokes a student through the static of the walkie-talkie.
Fort Gwinn, chair of the department of engineering mechanics, adjusts the contraption and seconds later smoke is billowing and all eyes are angled toward the sky, trying to keep track of the rocket in the blazing sunlight as it slowly parachutes its way back down to the parking lot.
On this sunny day, these seventeen students are learning how to apply math through building and launching rockets. But these aren’t just any students; these are math teachers who will take these hands-on teaching methods back to Tennessee’s high school classrooms.
The teachers came together June 11-22 for the SEE Math Workshop’s, Institute Y, the workshop’s first program focusing on applying calculus in the classroom. This is the second SEE (Student Engagement in Exploring) Math Workshop held at Lipscomb University. In 2006, Institute X, which focuses on algebra and statistics, debuted.
SEE Math is funded by a $200,000 Math Science Partnership grant, providing faculty salaries, stipends for participating high school and middle school teachers and numerous teaching materials for participants to take back to their classrooms.
The teachers who attended Institute Y said they enjoyed the different activities to help make learning and teaching fun.
Stephen Dorris from Martin Luther King High School in Nashville enjoyed the day participants shot off the rockets at Maplehurst.
“I think the kids will enjoy this,” said Dorris. “I’m having fun just learning how to apply the math in different real world situations and hands-on fun activities.”
Playing with explosive materials is not the only application tool learned. Teachers were also taught how to use MAPLE software, music, projectile guns, origami and other activities involving calculus concepts.
“Since I am a musician, the ‘Using Math in Music’ was my favorite part of the program,” said Dorris, “but the MAPLE software is what I’ll probably use the most in the classroom.” MAPLE is an innovative software program that helps teach calculus.
“The goal of the SEE Math program is to show teachers how to teach in ‘fun’ ways,” said Lipscomb’s Ben Hutchinson, dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences at Lipscomb and project director of the grant. “Different students learn in different ways. Some are more visual; some are more tactile; some respond best to computers. So it’s important for teachers to know several classroom methods to instill one particular concept.”
The creative teaching theme continued even when participants in Institutes X and Y met up, Tuesday, June 19, to celebrate a mathematics milestone – the 300th birthday of Leonhard Euler, the grandfather of topology, a branch of mathematics concerning properties of geometric configurations. The reception was held at the historic and haunted Longview Mansion.
Euler, pronounced “oiler,” is an inspirational figure for many Math teachers as he not only taught for 56 years, he also wrote 886 books and papers during his 76 years.
The reception, held in honor of the SEE Math participants, featured a little bit of the past and future, with Ralph Barnett, Assistant Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Education’s Division of Vocational-Technical Education, giving the teachers a glimpse of future state requirements and Lipscomb’s Phil Choate showing up as a ghostly Euler to give a unique math history lesson and to help find the answer of the seven bridges of Konigsberg, afamous math equation.
Barnett spoke about the need to provide real world applications for students, especially in math and vocational studies. He used engineering studies as one example of a subject needing clear real-world examples for students.
“They all want to do one of two things: build something, or blow something up,” joked Barnett, “legally, of course.”
Barnett noted that studies show most high school dropouts leave school because they saw no need for what they were learning, so Barnett challenged the educators to always show the application of subject matter.
In August, the Tennessee State Board of Education meeting will discuss increasing the graduation requirements for the state by adding a fourth year of math, but nothing has been finalized, Barnett said.
Also attending the reception were Scott Eddins, Secondary Mathematics Coordinator for the Tennessee State Department of Education and Jennifer Palladino, a member of his administrative staff.
Institute X continues on the Lipscomb campus through June 29.