September 3, 2003
Math not by the old numbers
Teachers attend math seminar in Worchester, Mass.
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Math can be fun and is relevant to life, even if a student is not planning a technical career.
So believes Traverse City Area Public School teachers John Failor and Pam Forton, who this summer attended a Mathematics in Industry Institute at the Worchester Polytechnic Institute in Worchester, Mass.
The two teachers returned from their week-long seminar in July revved up and ready for the new school year, eager to bring the ideas of math accessibility to their students.
"What I liked in particular was one teacher who worked with only real-life applications with his students, they did six projects a year," said Failor, a calculus teacher at Central High School. "That's what our students need to do is learn to tackle problems in this way."
During the institute, the 80 participants - math teachers from around the country - became students again. In addition to lectures and classroom time, they divided into 14 workgroups and delved into real life problems. Failor's group worked on creating a more intelligent hearing aid.
Later this year, participants will receive a compact disc listing all the problems tackled at this summer's institute, which they can bring to their classrooms for students to work on.
"Our problems were real-world industry problems that they hadn't solved themselves," noted Failor, who learned of the institute last spring and sent an e-mail to all secondary math teachers in TCAPS. "These problems don't necessarily have one answer, that is how math has been viewed, that there's one answer, but that's not true in industry."
Using the instructional model from the institute, for example, teachers could have students use and analyze super soakers water guns. These fun exercises would teach concepts ranging from volume and pressure to trajectory and distance.
Helping high school math teachers create problem solvers who are not afraid to experiment and think out of the box is one of the goals of the Mathematics in Industry Institute. Forton noted that elementary school math is very experiential: hands on and full of discovery. The disconnect with math often comes in later grades as students begin to question whether they will ever use any of the concepts they learn in class after their high school years.
"This was the institute I've been dreaming about because it answers the question, 'Why will I ever need to know this?,'" said Failor, a ten-year veteran teacher who previously worked as an actuary.
The Mathematics in Industry Institute emphasizes that math can be an integral of both life and work. The more that students pursue math in both high school and college, the more flexible they will be in future careers - in part because of their honed problems solving skills.
"We have to solve problems in our workplace today," said Forton, who worked as a paralegal for ten years and for 12 years in banking before becoming a teacher.
"If we can grow good problem solver, they'll be good at whatever they choose to do."
Discovering and problem solving as a team also emulates the work world. The institute modeled creating team projects for students to tackle.
"That's the thing about working in business today is you work in groups all the time," Forton noted.
Forton and Failor are eager not only to get into the classroom again but also to share what they learned with colleagues. Forton also hopes to form partnerships with area companies, one for each of her classes, which could bring in speakers, enable field trips and let the businesses give students real problems to solve.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing what the kids can come up with, they are so creative," said Forton, who has been a teacher for three years.
The Mathematics in Industry Institute also emphasizes keeping girls and minorities interested in math and in classroom seats throughout their high school years and beyond.
"The institute program is also about getting more women and minorities into higher level math classes," noted Forton. "There has been a decline in women in math and technology over the past few years; at the high school age it is better to be cute than to be smart."