I’m convinced we relegate “arts and crafts” and manipulatives to lower grades & don’t give older students a chance to interact with these activities enough just to seem “advanced”
that notion that in k12 “advanced math” looks like taking notes not glue & paper & art.
If you feel like you “don’t have time” think about what will have more of a lasting impact. What will they remember in 10 years? You doing the proof from the book? or trying to make an ellipse by slicing a cone made of clay?
@futurebird I went to an elementary school that heavily emphasized arts and crafts, which was torture for me because I have always struggled to do tasks with my hands where precision matters.
I was so happy to largely leave arts and crafts behind after that, and I think incorporating it into math class probably would have been enough to turn me off the subject.
I do think that physical models can be really illuminating, that much more when they're interactive, but constructing such models can be really difficult/frustrating for some students (not sure what proportion).
@internic @futurebird I believe that in general, the people who are now most likely to become elementary school teachers tend to be by and large people who are not strong, or feel themselves to be strong, in numerical and abstract reasoning skills.Thus "connected math" can tend to turn into extended art and storytime in a manner that doesn't really enhance development of future math, science or engineering skills. Too often it is the teachers themselves who convey math anxiety. This mode of presentation doesn't help math and abstract reasoning development of any of the students and is especially frustrating to those who are already ready and eager for actual math and science.
