Geome-tricky

          The focus again for this past week’s math class revolved around geometry, which somewhat solidified my belief that this particular strand of math is crucial for us as future educators. We focused more on working with 3D shapes, specifically working with cylinders by working through a type of activity that our Instructor called a “Guided Learning Activity”. Like most of our activities we did in class, we were asked to team up with our classmates to take on the activity, but the nature of this type of instruction is slightly different. Guided Learning Activities are supported by a somewhat intricate back-story, a topic with a little bit more substance than usual, and the students are asked to solve a big problem by working through a worksheet. Our activity was based around the task of trying to figure out how many giant metal cylinders could be made out of a given sheet of metal. The questions started simple, asking us to use toilet paper rolls to try and determine the exact measurements of the cylinders that will be built according to the activity. The activity guided us through, gradually, but also asked us to think deeply about what it was asking and what to do with the information we were acquiring while working through the series of questions. This type of learning activity is an amazing tool for an educator. It allows educators to have their students do exactly what they intended them to do in regards to what learning goals they have set out for their class but also allows them to have their students use the key skills in regards to the achievement charts. The assessment criteria for an activity lie this is very multifaceted in regards to how much an educator can assess.

An example of the easy to get manipulatives we needed to complete the activity in class. 

                One of the best aspect about the activity we did was that it would ask students to really be able to have a grasp on the language and terms that emerges when learning geometry. Every strand of math has plenty of new words and terms that students must understand and know when to use, but geometry has so many terms that students can get hung up on and miss use. In my opinion the best way to combat confusion is to focus on having your students use physical manipulative so they can see and feel the difference between shapes, especially when it comes to 2D and 3D shapes. The text, Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, they identify how students often struggle with what appropriate language to use when dealing with 2D and 3D shapes. Students may have issues when they start to work with 3D objects, such as calling a rectangular-based prism a rectangle, or calling a cube a square. This misconception is very common, and is often seen when students are first introduced to 3D objects, and their confusion can be seen as them understanding that 3D objects have 2D objects within them.

The struggles students have in the geometry lessons are of course not limited to working with 3D objects. The text, Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, identifies the issues that students have in regards to their ability to the common belief that the orientation of a shape is what defines it. The text suggests using concrete shapes like patter blocks to illustrate that it does not matter what orientation a shape is, a triangle is always a triangle and a square is always a square.  How well students grasp the language when it comes to geometry is a good measurement about how well they will understand when they continue to work with 2D and 3D shapes.  I think the language of geometry is the huge base that students need so they can continue to explore, learn and develop geometric skills and thinking.