Introduction
"Any fool can know; the point is to understand." Albert Einstein, perhaps one of the most celebrated problem solvers, knew the importance of understanding, and I believe my students yearn for that. Adolescents are known for their curiosity and strong opinions; however, we often miss the opportunity to tap into these natural resources in the classroom for fear of losing control of classroom management, deviating from a rigid curriculum, or limitations in our own depth of knowledge on a topic outside our expertise. When I read about this summer's seminar on energy and the environment, I saw an opportunity to build my own content knowledge around a topic I know my students care about. My 8th grade math students care passionately about the environment and how they can help save the earth. I will bring my mathematics background into this area to make connections that will be meaningful and important to students to understand how math is used in every discipline, and can be an essential tool to solving real problems they care about.
The K-12 mathematics curriculum centers on algebraic thinking and problem solving. While for mathematicians algebra is the exciting core of our subject, students in middle and high school often struggle to see the relevance of it in their daily lives. Their lack of enthusiasm became abundantly clear to me when I was teaching students about quadratic relationships.
We dutifully explored various representations of quadratics, word problems, and even incorporated algebra tiles as manipulatives to help my visual learners conceptualize this new content. My students learned quadratics and were able to fluently apply their knowledge in any situation I challenged them to investigate. It was the question posed to me that proved most challenging. "Ms. Agostinelli, no one uses quadratics in their daily life. My parents don't even know what it means. Why are we bothering to learn it?" At that moment, it occurred to me that my students weren't viewing math as a discipline, but rather as a distinct set of skills, most of which served no purpose in their daily lives.
I could have come back with the true, albeit somewhat contrived, facts: the more math you know, the further you typically go in higher education; careers that use complex math pay high salaries; being a numerate citizen will help you avoid being cheated. However, they have heard all of that before. I realized that they didn't value the core philosophy of my teaching, that being able to think and solve problems is all you'll ever need, because I had not made that method the focus. I realized we needed to shift from the focus we had on the content itself and broaden our scope to the larger and more important process of thinking that mathematics forces its students to develop.
I also want to build my students' capacity as critical thinkers who consume and create media, which will lead naturally into our culminating project of student-created public service announcements with accompanying infographics that quantify solutions to the problems they investigate. This unit will enhance their abilities in reading and understanding nonfiction text with embedded mathematics, a skill that will be a large focus across our middle school teams next year. Students will articulate research-based arguments supported by mathematical evidence, speak to persuade an audience to make practical changes in their lives to aid in solving the problem they investigate, and listen critically to others' ideas and suggestions. Additionally, my central purpose of helping students use math in a real world context that matters to them will fuel our studies. All of these skills align with the Common Core State Standards and challenges students to think using an interdisciplinary lens that connects and strengthens their abilities across content areas.
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