Learning Styles

Dan Meyer teaches high school math outside of Santa Cruz, CA, and explores the intersection of math instruction, multimedia, and inquiry-based learning. He first came to my attention through this video clip - Click here

He promotes the use of real life visual stimuli and adopts the mantra that less is more. Stripping back problems and both engaging and challenging pupils. A key question he encourages is "What Can You Do With That?" [WCYDWT] At the same time, we shouldn’t underestimate the hookiness of “How do we find solutions to this equation?” and appreciate that visual stimuli is not the only way forward.

His videos can be found on Vimeo (free registration for downloads) and can be found by Clicking here

This clip shows how Dan engages a class - Click here

Three-act structure works for a play, a romantic seduction, the 1st Marine Division marching up to Baghdad. It’s the architecture for a WWE wrestling match, a Frank Gehry concert hall or an infomercial.

Storytelling gives us a framework for certain mathematical tasks that is both prescriptive enough to be useful and flexible enough to be usable.

Act One

Introduce the central conflict of your story/task clearly, visually, viscerally, using as few words as possible.

The visual is clear. The camera is in focus. It isn't bobbing around so much that you can't get your bearings on the scene. There aren't any words. And it's visceral. It strikes you right in the terror bone.

With math, your first act looks something like this:

Act One is the hook. “A priest, a rabbi and a gerbil walk into a bar … ” The purpose of the first act is to engage the audience. The greatest Act One ever is a roller coaster. Up, up, up and then … over the falls! You’re hooked. Two other aspects of a great beginning: it must be unique and it must make a promise. A great fishing lure is a shiny, eye-catching object that makes the prey think, “Ah, a delicious meal!”

Act Two

The protagonist/student overcomes obstacles, looks for resources, and develops new tools.

What resources will your students need before they can resolve their conflict? The height of the basketball hoop? The distance to the three-point line? The diameter of a basketball?

What tools do they have already? What tools can you help them develop? They'll need quadratics, for instance. Help them with that.

Act Two is deepening complications. This is the meat of the project. Billy Wilder said, “In Act One, get your hero up a tree; Act Two, set the tree on fire; Act Three, get the hero down from the tree.”

The first movement of a symphony establishes the musical theme. The middle movements exhaust variations on the theme. Our middle passage—whether it’s a novel, a startup or a philanthropic venture—plays out the promise of the beginning to the point of excruciation. Think of making love. Think of a great meal. Think of middle age.

Act Three

If we've successfully motivated our students in the first act, the payoff in the third act needs to meet their expectations. Something like this:

Make sure you have extension problems (sequels, right?) ready for students as they finish.

Article taken from here

Act Three is the payoff. The release of tension. The climax. The resolution of the dilemma. In the third act we learn if the defendant will be hanged or go free. Will Janie and Joey get married? Do the good guys win or lose?

For some reason, the human mind loves items that come in threes. That’s the key to laying out our structure - Extracts taken from here

These problems are taken from Higher Tier GCSE papers where all that is left is the diagram and the challenge includes devising suitable questions to solve - Click here

These problems are adapted from the Bowland task 'You Reckon' - Click here

Project Aims: To increase student motivation/engagement To give students more ownership of their own learning To equip our students with better problem solving skills which they can use to solve a variety of problems Underlying principles for the lessons should be: Give minimal information about the problem Have a visual stimulus Include the use of multi-media Have a key question Situate the problem in a meaningful context Have closure to the problem.	Those involved the project are: Gill Larkin gill.larkin@suffolk.gov.uk Mark Greenaway mgreenaway@st-albans.suffolk.sch.uk Mohammed Ibrahim, Chantry mib@chantryhighschool.org.uk Gareth Jones, Sudbury Upper gjones@sus.suffolk.sch.uk Darren Page, Stowupland d.page@stowupland.suffolk.sch.uk Lydia Unwin, Leiston High floss15@btinternet.com
Lesson Idea 1 Real Life Graphs - Filling Beakers The key steps in this lesson are: Vocabulary Open Discussion using an unlabelled graph Pause Video Clip of 3 beakers being filled at a constant rate, get pupils to predict which will fill first with a reason Play clip and get pupils to reflect on their thinking or on each others. Pupils to decide which beaker match graph A with reason. Decisions to be made on numbers and labelling of axes Calculate/estimate volume of beaker A. Sketch graph for the other two beakers. Draw a beaker that would generate line B. Bath Filling Activity Tackle the original exam question the graph is taken from. Parts of this PowerPoint are to be projected and other sections are to support the teacher - Click here The PowerPoint refers to this Movie Clip - Click here Related nrich activities http://nrich.maths.org/7419 http://nrich.maths.org/6424 http://nrich.maths.org/6425

Lesson Idea 2 Overtaking Lorries - Clip Watch first 1:10 and then pose the question as to how long the white truck will take to pass the oil tanker Related nrich activities http://nrich.maths.org/5990
Lesson Idea 3 Packaging Coke Cans - Click here PowerPoint Extension - Click here Design a Container which holds 300ml - Click here Using Similarity with Drinks Cans - Click here Related nrich activities http://nrich.maths.org/5888 http://nrich.maths.org/2664

Dan Meyer teaches high school math outside of Santa Cruz, CA, and explores the intersection of math instruction, multimedia, and inquiry-based learning. He first came to my attention through this video clip - Click here He promotes the use of real life visual stimuli and adopts the mantra that less is more. Stripping back problems and both engaging and challenging pupils. A key question he encourages is "What Can You Do With That?" [WCYDWT] At the same time, we shouldn’t underestimate the hookiness of “How do we find solutions to this equation?” and appreciate that visual stimuli is not the only way forward. His videos can be found on Vimeo (free registration for downloads) and can be found by Clicking here This clip shows how Dan engages a class - Click here
Three-act structure works for a play, a romantic seduction, the 1st Marine Division marching up to Baghdad. It’s the architecture for a WWE wrestling match, a Frank Gehry concert hall or an infomercial. Storytelling gives us a framework for certain mathematical tasks that is both prescriptive enough to be useful and flexible enough to be usable. Act One Introduce the central conflict of your story/task clearly, visually, viscerally, using as few words as possible. The visual is clear. The camera is in focus. It isn't bobbing around so much that you can't get your bearings on the scene. There aren't any words. And it's visceral. It strikes you right in the terror bone. With math, your first act looks something like this: Act One is the hook. “A priest, a rabbi and a gerbil walk into a bar … ” The purpose of the first act is to engage the audience. The greatest Act One ever is a roller coaster. Up, up, up and then … over the falls! You’re hooked. Two other aspects of a great beginning: it must be unique and it must make a promise. A great fishing lure is a shiny, eye-catching object that makes the prey think, “Ah, a delicious meal!”
Act Two The protagonist/student overcomes obstacles, looks for resources, and develops new tools. What resources will your students need before they can resolve their conflict? The height of the basketball hoop? The distance to the three-point line? The diameter of a basketball? What tools do they have already? What tools can you help them develop? They'll need quadratics, for instance. Help them with that. Act Two is deepening complications. This is the meat of the project. Billy Wilder said, “In Act One, get your hero up a tree; Act Two, set the tree on fire; Act Three, get the hero down from the tree.” The first movement of a symphony establishes the musical theme. The middle movements exhaust variations on the theme. Our middle passage—whether it’s a novel, a startup or a philanthropic venture—plays out the promise of the beginning to the point of excruciation. Think of making love. Think of a great meal. Think of middle age.
Act Three If we've successfully motivated our students in the first act, the payoff in the third act needs to meet their expectations. Something like this: Make sure you have extension problems (sequels, right?) ready for students as they finish. Article taken from here Act Three is the payoff. The release of tension. The climax. The resolution of the dilemma. In the third act we learn if the defendant will be hanged or go free. Will Janie and Joey get married? Do the good guys win or lose? For some reason, the human mind loves items that come in threes. That’s the key to laying out our structure - Extracts taken from here