Images courtesy of Math Surprise
Math resources available for students during COVID-19
An extended March break due to COVID-19 doesn’t mean education has to stop. Parents and their children concerned how the extra time off will impact learning now have additional resources they can use.
Education professor George Gadanidis and his team, in partnership with Western’s WorlDiscoveries®, have developed a collection of children’s stories to help children learn math while learning a language. These stories have a math surprise as an important part of the plot, such as:
- I can hold infinity in my hand!
- Odd numbers hide in squares!
- Clocks make waves!
“Surprise is not a frill. It’s a biological necessity. If we didn’t enjoy experiencing, creating and learning from surprising events, our ancestors would have been some wild animal’s lunch a very long time ago,” said Gadanidis.
Mathematical surprises, and story settings, help students conceptually and emotionally engage math, added Gadanidis. The stories are in English, French and Spanish.
These stories cover: numbers, pattern/algebra, measurement/geometry and data/probability.
The stories are geared towards students between grades 1-8 and some of the stories include twists to literary classics, such as ‘Mirror, Mirror’ and ‘Tortoise and the hare rematch.’
These stories, and other resources by Gadanidis and his team, have been incorporated into education programs across North America.
