The idea that mathematics should be done sitting still, quietly, and alone is one that hasn't sat well with me for some time. I've had so much more success, not to mention experienced much more joy, when I've been able to move around, converse about problems, challenge my peers, and rejoice when I come to a conclusion! Math is meant to be felt, experienced, and lived...if this is true, math requires us to engage with our bodies.
This week was the first week back at school after Christmas break. As I welcomed by Foundations of Mathematics 11 students back into the classroom, we began our final unit: Scale Diagrams and Unit Rates. I like to save this one for last, as it often seems the most "practical" in the eyes of our aspiring soon-to-be-adults. What I want to share, in particular, was a conversation from this week that involved measurement. We were discussing how to convert units from kg to lbs, cm to mm, and so on...this perplexed many of my students as we don't really practice conversions in high school anymore. Through a long-winding road of events, we landed on the fascinating idea that the span of your arms is (usually) equivalent to your height!
Reading the introduction to EDCP553 and the concepts of mathematics being more than simply rote learning, this is the measurement experience that came to mind. Our activity, Body Measurement - Outdoors and In - led me to consider the new move into my portable classroom and the spacing of tables; it is easy to measure the space between tables with a pace or an arm length. Additionally, when I use my truck to move things, "eye-balling" or using body measurements (arm span, steps, shoe-lengths, etc) becomes more useful to consider what will or will not fit than a tape measure, which often is not handy.
But, in the name of interesting mathematics, this week's activity led me to relish in the fact that my students, for a split second, were excited about the realization that they could measure their height with their arms, which led a journey to discover what else our bodies can measure!
I loved this quote, “Math is meant to be felt, experienced, and lived...if this is true, math requires us to engage with our bodies.” I agree, math is not just something to be survived or memorized, we need to work to change this commonly held belief (the drudgery of mathematics) that comes up frequently, like at the dinner party I hosted last night!
ReplyDeleteI also loved how you described you and your students landing on the “fascinating idea” that the span of your arms is (usually) equivalent to your height. How fun! It reminded me of the Antonsen talk and his definition of mathematics as including “doing cool stuff.” Measuring the span of your arms to see if it is equivalent to your height fits that category! It exemplifies Antonsen’s assertion that mathematics is seeing what happens from different perspectives. Thanks for sharing that example from your practice.