1 Workshop by teachers at St Clare College Secondary School
MaSDiV: Addressing Diversity in the Mathematics Classroom
During the Tikka Matematika event held on 25th and 26th February 2019, Ms Stephanie Asciak (Head of Mathematics Department & CPD leader within MaSDiV) and Mr Stefan Azzopardi (Mathematics Teacher & participating teacher within MaSDiV), presented a workshop to teachers entitled MaSDiV: Addressing Diversity in the Mathematics Classroom.
This workshop, offered to teachers on both days, was structured over three parts. In the first part, the speakers presented a brief introduction of the project aims and CPD offered to both teachers and CPD leaders.
In the next part, a lesson planned and implemented by a group of teachers was presented. The lesson involved students in deciding the best option between organic and conventional farming. Stephanie and Stefan provided participants with video clips of this lesson for discussion. The lesson was structured over three phases that included task presentation, small-group activity and a plenary part.
In the third and last part of this workshop, participants were presented with a task addressing a parking space. Participants worked in groups on the following problem:
“A huge piece of land, 140 m by 55 m, is to be converted into a parking lot. In the space provided, design a plan that would maximise the available space.”
Following small-group discussion, participants were asked to present their plan and discuss strategies, decisions and reasons.
2 Presentation by teachers at St Francis Secondary School
Using Mathematics to solve an Escape Room: Help Santa Find His Code
As Escape Room activity was organised by mathematics teachers for students in Year 9. Since this activity was held during the Christmas period, the teachers chose to theme the activity around Santa, who lost the 4-digit code to his safe, in which he keeps his Christmas presents’ list. Students had one hour to break the code to the safe, otherwise Santa would not manage to deliver the presents on time.
The activity required communication and collaborative work since students worked in groups to solve problems by applying their mathematics to five different non-routine tasks. This activity also helped students to identify intellectual understanding, abilities and skills of each individual in the team and use them for the benefit of the whole group. Another aim of the activity was that of promoting mathematics as fun and activity-oriented. Moreover, students were given the opportunity to view mathematics as an interconnected subject and make connections between apparently distinct domains. Being in an informal setting, students felt more at ease to share their ideas, thus such tasks can be used to help increase students’ self-esteem and self-confidence when tackling tasks related to mathematics.
Poster presentation
Click on the link below to view the full poster.
Teachers: Marie Therese Apap Bologna, Marouska Bugeja, Stephania Cachia Zammit, Pia Calleja, Robert Pawley, Vanessa Tanti Rigos
School: St Francis Secondary School, Sliema
3 Presentation by teachers at St Clare College Secondary School
Escaping the Mathematics Room!
The idea of this activity, carried out in the school hall, originated from teachers’ participation in the MaSDiV project. Such an activity addresses diversity in the classroom, and hence implies the need for considering and integrating diversity in teaching methods.
Two Year 10 Track 3 classes were presented with a set of low-floor-high ceiling tasks. Students were divided to work on theses tasks in small-groups of four students. Although incorporating a competitive element, students were encouraged to work at their own pace. Moreover, if the solution of the task was incorrect, students were offered further attempts to solve the task again.
The tasks
Photos
Teachers: Ms Tamara Azzopardi and Mr Philip Zammit
School: St Clare College Secondary School Pembroke