SEE-Math workshops deliver new ideas, activities and iPads to middle Tennessee teachers
Lacey Klotz |
This summer, teachers from across middle Tennessee, have come to Lipscomb University to enhance their classroom techniques through the annual SEE-Math (Student Engagement in Exploring Math) program.
Lipscomb University’s Depart of Mathematics in conjunction with the College of Education recently wrapped up this year’s offering with the SEE-Math 
Institute T, the last of its three two-week professional development institutes, July 6-17. Two others also took place earlier this June.
Funded by a Math Science Partnership program grant from the Tennessee Department of Education, 72 K-fourth grade teachers from Robertson, Maury, Wilson and Davidson counties came together to learn how to make math more relatable and fun for both teachers and students.
The grant requires partners to be from high-need counties, and the state has allotted $324,000 for the 2015 MSP program.
Carroll Wells, grant director and professor of mathematics, says this highly successful professional development workshop offers a unique opportunity for teachers to engage their students by providing resources for them to grow as educators and help students better understand and enjoy mathematics.
“This is our tenth year offering our SEE-Math workshops at Lipscomb, and we have been so fortunate to have received the grants we have from the Tennessee Department of Education,” Wells said. “Every year we stress to teachers how important it is to get students involved and excited about learning, and throughout our lessons we give them exercises, tools and copies of hand outs with instructions and materials from every activity demonstrated in the workshop to take back to their classrooms and share with their students and generations to come.”
Teachers were each given a 64GB iPad with over 30 apps for teaching, as well as books, games and magformers for teaching and engaging their students.
Nearly 400 teachers apply for these workshops each year, but only under a fourth are chosen to participate. During the three two-week professional 
institutes, Lipscomb professors focus on four specific topics including geometry, number sense, problem solving and iPad courses. Within these four sessions, teachers are given hands on activities to complete and discuss so they can incorporate these activities into their future lesson plans.
Ben Hutchinson, former professor of chemistry and dean of the former College of Natural & Applied Sciences, died earlier this year. According to Wells, Hutchinson was the driving force behind the SEE-Math Workshops and also in getting the department of education’s financial support through its MSP, ITQ and STEM Grants, all of which have been granted numerous times to Lipscomb University in the past ten years.
“Ben Hutchinson had applied for grants at other universities and really encouraged us to apply as well,” Wells said. “He was an inspiring leader, passionate educator and influential man who gave so much to his students and this institution.”
In addition to the SEE-Math workshops, there was also a professional development institute on campus for middle grade mathematics teachers on campus from July 6-10. Nearly 30 middle grade teachers from Robertson and Davidson counties participated in the Geometry, Measurement and Algebraic Thinking for Grades 5-8 workshop sponsored under an Improving Teacher Quality grant from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
The approximately $75,000 ITQ grant gave middle grade teachers specific training in the use of technology, hands-on activities and problem solving for 
teaching algebra and geometry/measurement concepts.
Brandon Banes, assistant professor of mathematics, said that although there was some overlap between the SEE-Math workshop and the ITQ institute such as geometry activities and number sense, the algebraic topics distinguish the ITQ institute from the SEE-Math.
“All of the activities in the workshop are centered around conceptual understanding of important mathematics concepts,” Banes said. “The technology helps make big ideas salient and appeals to students that prefer a visual approach. The hands-on activities can get student engaged in the mathematics in a fun way.”
Middle grade teachers each received a copy of Geometer's Sketchpad, Algebra in Motion, video-based problem-solving tasks called The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury, algebra tiles and magformers, a membership to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and several books that will help to further their professional development beyond the one-week institute.