Making Math "COOL" for schools! (brainstorming & related activities)

ArashP

Hello people, As part of my internship, me & some friends have thought about a educational program through Processing and other environments, that can help high-school students (or maybe lower levels) to understand better Math and Physics. If anyone knows any website or any kind of resources that have been working similar to this, or there's a library/ examples/ etc already done in this field, i'd really appreciate. I've already a long list, like CodingMath, KhanAcademy, FunProgramming, Mathsisfun, ... but any other links would be greatly helpful. Also if you have any ideas and are eager to share, please do it!

Thanks a lot in advance, Arash

Chrisir

there are some approaches that don't use computers:

e.g.

1.

you are in the gym and there is a parcours of bars and benches to walk around.

the pupils make groups now of two persons each

Now one pupil has to give orders to the other to go through the path etc.

thus they learn programming by giving precise orders.

2.

some do sorting algorithms on the school yard: each pupil holds a unique number and they walk different sort strategies and thus learn and experience sorting.

Ater

I think CodingMath and KhanAcademy are full of stuff, so you don't need more, it would take months to go through all the lessons and resources out there.

As for processing, it really helps to understand geometry better. I think I never had real understanding of vectors and trigonometric functions until I start to program graphics. Physics is another great thing to learn through processing, have a look at Shiffman's Nature of Code (if you still didn't). It explains physics simulation with ease.

ArashP

Chrisir

Thats fun too! But the point here is not necessarily learn programming, but actually learn Math in a practical way, in this case programming with Processing. But again for lower level its a good idea for them to have a feeling of programming. Thanks!

Ater

Thanks, i will take a look.

TfGuy44

Wait, so you're trying to teach them math by having them write Processing sketches? That will mainly teach them programming, not math.

You could always program a game that requires them to know math to play it well. Or even a game that teaches math. Did you ever play Number Muncher?

You're really going to have to be specific about what you're trying to do here...

ArashP

TfGuy44

So the issue is that, it's almost impossible to propose the idea of Teaching programming in schools right now, even if we say that they're gonna need their math and physics knowledge. We've found some ways to (hopefully) bring Processing or programming in general to the schools, as long as the students wouldn't need to have classes about programming or at least not as the main point.

So the whole idea is that their Math teacher would teach them some basic principle of coding with Processing, and then try to use Algebra and Trigonometry or Functions in general, to just get another understanding of their lessons and homework. or by making some visuals, get motivated to know Math better.

As i said, the first priority is the high-school students, specifically a 6 months to 1 year education after finishing high-school and before taking higher education which is very common in Denmark, something called Gymnasium or folkehøjskole.

colouredmirrorball

Maybe some numerical math where they graphically discover how Taylor expansions work or how a computer can calculate derivatives? But that was not part of my high school syllabus...

Maybe the best way is to let the students work with 3D. Instead of having to draw on a 2D surface they can now create their own 3D objects and rotate it at will and visualise if their formulas are correct (eg. calculate the intersection point of a line with a plane and display both the line, the plane and the point to check the result).

ArashP

colouredmirrorball

very cool! Thanks for the feedback! 3D would be definitely more easy and practical to understand, but it's also harder to implement in the beginning. But i'll take notes of your suggestions :)

Cheers,