Why Is Math So...?

Over the course of the summer, educators enjoy the glorious weather but also spend time preparing for the upcoming year.  This often entails reviewing curriculum, aligning assessments to standards, adjusting procedures and reflecting on what was successful from years past.  Educators will often take on the job of creating new, challenging and exciting tasks which they cannot wait to present to students.  And as many educators know, the newly designed work can quickly seem like wasted time spent when the time comes to present it to the students.

The task is distributed, the teacher is excited and the class is bursting with energy.  Unfortunately, the energy is talk about lunch, the school dance or what is happening next weekend.  The teacher will patrol the classroom and quickly find that students do not care about unit cost, cost comparisons and the best deal; they don’t even do the grocery shopping.  The complaint which can be heard throughout the classroom, “Why do you make math so pointless?”

The goal for educators  is certainly not based on turning students off from mathematics.  In fact it is quite the opposite.  There is the never ending hunt and challenge of creating daily lessons which spark enthusiasm, intrigue and excitement in the eyes of every student in the classroom.  However, there is often the roadblock of students who just don’t care about the math.  They have no desire to make efforts to learn about the mathematics and see no point in persevering through useless problems on cross products, linear equations or proportional reasoning.  These are the students who speak their minds, “Why do you make math so boring?”

There are also the cases when a task initially excites students but then something happens and the students give up.  This can happen for some of the reasons noted earlier but also can occur when a task is seen as too easy or too hard. Students will quickly give up on a task when they come to the realization that they have a few days to complete it and really only need one class period. This means plenty of play time.  On the other hand there are the students who just can’t wrap their heads around the task and aren’t quite sure where to start.  In their minds, they shouldn’t bother to waste time on the task.   The complaints that are shared all stem from, “Why do you make math so difficult? Can’t we just do problems from the book?”

For educators these are the dreaded questions which they have worked on diminishing via their summer work.  Now they have come to a place where there is frustration and a feeling of giving up. “Why not assign 25 problems from the textbook?  Students will be happier and I will have saved months of wasted time.”

For these educators, keep in mind the goals of inspiring these young minds and preparing them for the world beyond the classroom.  Accepting the challenge of turning math into a meaningful, exciting, and pertinent subject for all students is the focus.  The question is, “How can this be done?”

First and foremost, remember that not all students are going to love every lesson created.  However, try creating a survey asking student about their interests and hobbies. Ask students to take a multiple intelligence test to determine who is sitting in the room.  Is the class full of interpersonal students who tend to be musical?  Or is the class full of intrapersonal students who are focused on the environment? Use the results to form mathematical lessons around the make-up of the students.  Or to make it even easier, use problems from a math textbook as the foundation.

Take out the math textbook.  Choose a problem which students have shown an interest in the past.  Analyze this problem and determine how it can be changed from a closed, one-answer problem to an open ended problem which allows students to be creative in their solutions. Instead of asking students to determine the area of 12 foot by 13 foot room ask students to design a dream room (or a combination of rooms or even an entire floor plan) and be prepared to discuss the dimensions and make-up of the design.  Leave it open as to how students create the room and share their design.  Some may choose good old paper and pencil while others may turn to technology.  The artists in the classroom are going to add their creative touches and the mathematicians are going to bring out the precision. 

Of course there is still going to be the student who is complaining.  Pull this student aside. Talk with this student and get to the bottom of the complaint.  Work with this student to redesign the task so make it pertinent to them.  Are they interested in a skateboarding?  Design a skateboard park.  Interested in horseback riding?  Design a new arena. Don’t take “it is boring” as an answer.  Make this task one which they have vested interest in.  In the end, make it a point to showcase this student’s work.  Students will see the willingness to make math connected to their lives and the creativity will start flying.

The most challenging aspect of this type of task is student adjustment.  Students are accustomed to being told what to do and how to do it.  By letting go of the reins, they will struggle with less parameters and the openness of the task.  However, the result students who are excited about the mathematics take pride in their work and ownership in the task.  A boring, unrelated and challenging problem can be redesigned to become exciting, pertinent and focused on the individual in a matter or minutes; say hello to summer again.