|
According to the National Math Advisory Panel Report (2008), facility with fractions, ratios, and proportion is one of three critical foundations for students' success in algebra, the one critical foundation that is insufficiently developed in schools. Math Core for Museums is a collaboration of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Museum of Science in Boston, the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham, and Explora in Albuquerque working with Ricardo Nemirovsky at San Diego State University and Tracey Wright from TERC in Cambridge, MA. The Goal of the project is to develop, install, and study in four museums a set of math exhibits for children and families on the broad topic of ratio and proportion. The four museums will develop working prototypes of 20 open-ended math experiences that encourage families to explore kinesthetically — and talk about — proportion: fractions, ratios, similarity, scaling, and percentages. These exhibits will be designed to invite and support repeated use by family visitors over many museum visits. Ten completed exhibits will be installed in each of the four museums. The project will develop supporting materials that will make sure parents and caregivers are free of the (sometimes unconscious) burden of traditional teaching (didacticism) but are helped to become exploratory learners side-by-side with their children. The project will conduct a 3-year study on how these exhibits support math learning with museum members and other participating families in the museums' communities. The study will discover and document how these math exhibits can engage children several times over their museum-going years to build capacity and interest in mathematics. The study will find out the relevant factors - parental involvement, exhibit qualities such as open-endedness and responsiveness to visitors, and learning support tools such as documentation stations - that invite revisiting. The Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education will conduct a research study on how children start to engage in mathematical argument about relations of similarity and proportion; how children use proportional mathematics in attempting to achieve aesthetic and cultural meaningful expressions; and what children's gestures at the exhibits reveal about the significance of bodily activity and kinesthetic learning in grappling with relations of similarity and proportion.
Go back to Museum 2.0
|