This video will highlight the new Connecting Math to the Real World project, a collaborative project among university researchers, expert teachers, and elementary children. The focus of the project is to make elementary mathematics meaningful and applicable inside and outside of the classroom by connecting mathematics to real-world topics, including current events and societal issues that are interesting, engaging and relevant to children’s, family members’, and community members’ lives. We are focused on the following questions:
What does it mean to connect math to the real world?
What are some relevant social and political issues for elementary school?
What types of lessons will teachers implement?
The three goals of the Connecting Math to the Real World project are: (1) To explore how mathematics teachers adapt, design, and enact tasks that connect mathematics to the real world. Our goal is to study the teaching practices of our team of researchers and teachers as they engage in a summer camp and in elementary classrooms at two sites in Appalachia and in the Pacific Northwest. (2) To develop a collection of exemplar tasks and rich records of practice for each task. These records of practice will detail the mathematical and real-world learning goals, background knowledge needed for both goals, common student responses, and videos or vignettes of the task in progress. (3) To research both the development and enactment of these tasks. The research products of this project will result in (a) an understanding of effective teaching and design practices for connecting mathematics to real-world issues, (b) a theoretical framework of how these practices are interconnected, and (c) how these practices differ from practices when teaching other school mathematics tasks.
Mathematics, Instructional Materials, Addressing Common Core
Portland State Univ, Ohio University
Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12)
Related Content for Connecting Math to the Real World
Discussion from the 2022 STEM For All Video Showcase (26 posts)
Eva Thanheiser
Co-Presenter Professor
May 9, 2022 | 03:18 p.m.
Hello!
We are so excited you are here. We are in the first year of our project and welcome all feedback/questions/comments/etc. We also posed some questions to kick of the discussion
What does it mean to connect math to the real world?
What are some relevant social and political issues for elementary school?
What types of lessons will teachers implement?
Please link to your own work so we can all learn with each other.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Such interesting work. I like your world village lesson. In response to (3) I'm curious and look forward to hearing which lessons of which they take ownership.
1
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Such an interesting and needed project! I look forward to following over the next few years. I am curious...when you start lesson planning with teachers do you start with a particular mathematical goal (e.g., I want my students to be confronted with a situation involving equivalent fractions) or with a community issue to explore and then try to make the mathematics "fit"?
Mathew Felton-Koestler
Lead Presenter Associate Professor
May 10, 2022 | 11:28 a.m.
Great question! I would say we've done some of both so far (and that there's a lot of back and forth within any given conversation). In one case we had a general real-world topic to begin with, but were able to adapt it to different mathematical goals. In some conversations the teachers might have ideas for contexts and then we try to brainstorm mathematical connections. I haven't been involved in a lot of conversations where we start only with the math topic and go from there, but I think that will come up more next year (and it's come up as an approach in more general conversations with the teachers).
1
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Ana Stephens
Eva Thanheiser
Co-Presenter Professor
May 10, 2022 | 11:30 a.m.
Ana, thanks for checking in. We are examining both ways. Realistically teachers will need to start with the math they are required to teach and build connections from there, so we are definitely examining that route. In addition learning about the children and the communities can help us with the contexts that might be relevant to them. I just watched your video and would love to learn more and potentially connect our work.
2
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Carolyn White
Ana Stephens
K. Renae Pullen
Facilitator Science Specialist
May 10, 2022 | 02:36 p.m.
What a powerful way to have children engage in meaningful learning experiences in mathematics. I'm interested in how you all think about making connections to science, engineering, and social studies with this project.
Mathew Felton-Koestler
Lead Presenter Associate Professor
May 10, 2022 | 04:48 p.m.
For me social studies is most prominent in that it's a good for understanding our social-world. For example, we're working on a lesson where we use mathematics to understand how many people come from different parts of the world.
1
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K. Renae Pullen
K. Renae Pullen
Facilitator Science Specialist
May 12, 2022 | 10:46 a.m.
I love it.
Amanda Sugimoto
Co-Presenter Assistant Professor
May 11, 2022 | 09:22 a.m.
Love this question. I will say that these cross curriculuar connections have been coming up this year in our work with practicing elementary teachers while we are developing tasks. In these conversations, there have been more connections to science and social studies and less connections to engineering, so I appreciate the reminder to also attend to other content areas.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
K. Renae Pullen
K. Renae Pullen
Facilitator Science Specialist
May 12, 2022 | 10:51 a.m.
I appreciate that consideration, and thanks for focusing on elementary. It's so important with the added benefit of being fun.
This is an important topic for educational research and I'm excited to learn more as you continue with your work. Does your study include directly engaging with the students to learn about their reactions to the lessons?
Eva Thanheiser
Co-Presenter Professor
May 11, 2022 | 10:14 a.m.
Hi Jennifer, yes we are working in schools with teachers and students. So exciting to see what will happen.
What a great project! I like how students created different kinds of representations of the same data. I'm sure that encouraged them to look at things from various perspectives. As a museum educator and researcher, I am inspired to think about how we might incorporate data representation into people's experiences of our individual exhibitions or even holistically across the museum.
Eva Thanheiser
Co-Presenter Professor
May 12, 2022 | 10:54 a.m.
Hi Denice, I would love to connect with you. Museum educator sounds amazing and we likely have tons in common.
Ann Cavallo
Facilitator Assistant Vice Provost and Director
May 11, 2022 | 12:51 p.m.
Very nice presentation and project! Will you discuss more how you are measuring impacts of your project? What is your methodology? Dispositions was mentioned as an important variable. What aspect of dispositions are you looking at and how are you determining changes in disposition due to the project? Thanks much!!
Eva Thanheiser
Co-Presenter Professor
May 12, 2022 | 10:56 a.m.
Hi Ann,
This year we are working with teachers and are learning with them about how they conceptualize what it means to connect math to the real world. We did some interviews and are recording our collaborative work. Next year two of us will be in the elementary classroom every day and will co-facilitate the math lessons. We collect data in those classrooms from all participants. We are still working out the details. Thanks for your question.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Ann Cavallo
Ann Cavallo
Facilitator Assistant Vice Provost and Director
May 15, 2022 | 11:59 a.m.
Thank you! Connecting to the real world is so important for mathematics learning and to promote positive attitudes toward the subject. They see how math is relevant in our everyday lives while developing problem solving and reasoning skills. Great project.
Great project! I'm curious about what role students will have in generating topics to explore with math. Are you developing topics and projects based mostly on teacher input about what might work with different age groups or populations? Or will you create projects that are responsive to and adaptable to specific student groups?
Eva Thanheiser
Co-Presenter Professor
May 12, 2022 | 10:58 a.m.
Patrik, great question. This year we are working with the teachers and are addressing the question of how to learn about your students to incorporate their interests. Next year two of us will be in the classroom and will collaborate with the children. Thank you for your question.
Amanda Sugimoto
Co-Presenter Assistant Professor
May 12, 2022 | 12:00 p.m.
This is such an important question. Next year, we plan to continue to explore how to create these tasks while also leaving intentional space to modify tasks in relation to the students with whom we are working.
This project looks so amazing. I really love the focus on real world mathematics connections and the example of the world as a village. I worry, sometimes, that we're in a world in which social and political issues are often divided into a binary of "for" or "against". But to children, issues are much more nuanced and complex. I wonder if there are ways to engage in social and political issues using mathematics to show that there is more than just a "for" or "against" stand for children to take.
Eva Thanheiser
Co-Presenter Professor
May 12, 2022 | 11:00 a.m.
Teddy, thank you so much for your thoughts. Yes I think learning about the world around us can be more than a binary (for and against). I am also intrigued by your project and wondering whether we can include videos somehow?
Brian Foley
Facilitator Professor
May 15, 2022 | 12:01 p.m.
This effort sounds great. Helping students see the math that is all around us will increase the relevance of math courses for the rest of their lives. In science we are trying to do this by building lessons around science phenomena. I am sure you could do something similar for a lot of math topics.
Amanda Sugimoto
Co-Presenter Assistant Professor
May 16, 2022 | 11:55 a.m.
Brian, I couldn't agree more. In our case we are looking at social and political phenomena as well as mathematical content. I've seen some amazing work in science with a similar approach. Thanks for watching our video.
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Hello!
We are so excited you are here. We are in the first year of our project and welcome all feedback/questions/comments/etc. We also posed some questions to kick of the discussion
Please link to your own work so we can all learn with each other.
Theodore Chao
Tabatha Rainwater
Such interesting work. I like your world village lesson. In response to (3) I'm curious and look forward to hearing which lessons of which they take ownership.
Theodore Chao
Ana Stephens
Such an interesting and needed project! I look forward to following over the next few years. I am curious...when you start lesson planning with teachers do you start with a particular mathematical goal (e.g., I want my students to be confronted with a situation involving equivalent fractions) or with a community issue to explore and then try to make the mathematics "fit"?
Mathew Felton-Koestler
Associate Professor
Great question! I would say we've done some of both so far (and that there's a lot of back and forth within any given conversation). In one case we had a general real-world topic to begin with, but were able to adapt it to different mathematical goals. In some conversations the teachers might have ideas for contexts and then we try to brainstorm mathematical connections. I haven't been involved in a lot of conversations where we start only with the math topic and go from there, but I think that will come up more next year (and it's come up as an approach in more general conversations with the teachers).
Ana Stephens
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Ana, thanks for checking in. We are examining both ways. Realistically teachers will need to start with the math they are required to teach and build connections from there, so we are definitely examining that route. In addition learning about the children and the communities can help us with the contexts that might be relevant to them. I just watched your video and would love to learn more and potentially connect our work.
Carolyn White
Ana Stephens
K. Renae Pullen
Science Specialist
What a powerful way to have children engage in meaningful learning experiences in mathematics. I'm interested in how you all think about making connections to science, engineering, and social studies with this project.
Mathew Felton-Koestler
Associate Professor
For me social studies is most prominent in that it's a good for understanding our social-world. For example, we're working on a lesson where we use mathematics to understand how many people come from different parts of the world.
K. Renae Pullen
K. Renae Pullen
Science Specialist
I love it.
Amanda Sugimoto
Assistant Professor
Love this question. I will say that these cross curriculuar connections have been coming up this year in our work with practicing elementary teachers while we are developing tasks. In these conversations, there have been more connections to science and social studies and less connections to engineering, so I appreciate the reminder to also attend to other content areas.
K. Renae Pullen
K. Renae Pullen
Science Specialist
I appreciate that consideration, and thanks for focusing on elementary. It's so important with the added benefit of being fun.
Jennifer McMurrer
This is an important topic for educational research and I'm excited to learn more as you continue with your work. Does your study include directly engaging with the students to learn about their reactions to the lessons?
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Hi Jennifer, yes we are working in schools with teachers and students. So exciting to see what will happen.
Denice Blair
What a great project! I like how students created different kinds of representations of the same data. I'm sure that encouraged them to look at things from various perspectives. As a museum educator and researcher, I am inspired to think about how we might incorporate data representation into people's experiences of our individual exhibitions or even holistically across the museum.
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Hi Denice, I would love to connect with you. Museum educator sounds amazing and we likely have tons in common.
Ann Cavallo
Assistant Vice Provost and Director
Very nice presentation and project! Will you discuss more how you are measuring impacts of your project? What is your methodology? Dispositions was mentioned as an important variable. What aspect of dispositions are you looking at and how are you determining changes in disposition due to the project? Thanks much!!
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Hi Ann,
This year we are working with teachers and are learning with them about how they conceptualize what it means to connect math to the real world. We did some interviews and are recording our collaborative work. Next year two of us will be in the elementary classroom every day and will co-facilitate the math lessons. We collect data in those classrooms from all participants. We are still working out the details. Thanks for your question.
Ann Cavallo
Ann Cavallo
Assistant Vice Provost and Director
Thank you! Connecting to the real world is so important for mathematics learning and to promote positive attitudes toward the subject. They see how math is relevant in our everyday lives while developing problem solving and reasoning skills. Great project.
Patrik Lundh
Great project! I'm curious about what role students will have in generating topics to explore with math. Are you developing topics and projects based mostly on teacher input about what might work with different age groups or populations? Or will you create projects that are responsive to and adaptable to specific student groups?
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Patrik, great question. This year we are working with the teachers and are addressing the question of how to learn about your students to incorporate their interests. Next year two of us will be in the classroom and will collaborate with the children. Thank you for your question.
Amanda Sugimoto
Assistant Professor
This is such an important question. Next year, we plan to continue to explore how to create these tasks while also leaving intentional space to modify tasks in relation to the students with whom we are working.
Janet Stramel
Connecting mathematics to the real world is critical! Thank you for sharing.
Carolyn White
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Thanks Janet for stopping by.
Theodore Chao
This project looks so amazing. I really love the focus on real world mathematics connections and the example of the world as a village. I worry, sometimes, that we're in a world in which social and political issues are often divided into a binary of "for" or "against". But to children, issues are much more nuanced and complex. I wonder if there are ways to engage in social and political issues using mathematics to show that there is more than just a "for" or "against" stand for children to take.
Eva Thanheiser
Professor
Teddy, thank you so much for your thoughts. Yes I think learning about the world around us can be more than a binary (for and against). I am also intrigued by your project and wondering whether we can include videos somehow?
Brian Foley
Professor
This effort sounds great. Helping students see the math that is all around us will increase the relevance of math courses for the rest of their lives. In science we are trying to do this by building lessons around science phenomena. I am sure you could do something similar for a lot of math topics.
Amanda Sugimoto
Assistant Professor
Brian, I couldn't agree more. In our case we are looking at social and political phenomena as well as mathematical content. I've seen some amazing work in science with a similar approach. Thanks for watching our video.
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.