Summary:
Meg Moss (2009) believes that outdoor mathematics experiences could help teachers and children interact better with the world we live in, both in preservice teacher education and in elementary schools. Through such a natural curiosity they are able to build mathematical knowledge using both a constructivist psychological and socio-cultural viewpoint. Experiences in outdoor mathematics not only help students see the links between mathematics and other disciplines, but can also make learners feel more connected to their natural world. This paper describes outdoor mathematics and related theoretical framework, and then offers specific examples of outdoor mathematics tasks that can be used in primary teacher education.
Stop 1:
How do we make math fun?
Children
are natural adventurers and are born with curiosity and imagination. Nowadays,
we see many students in our class say no to mathematics due to mathematics anxiety,
losing confidence when failed frequently, and lacking interests when the
teaching expectation are beyond or below their capacities etc. After reading
this article, I was thinking, how do we create some mathematics activities that
are fun and educational-orientated at the same time besides those conventional means?
When
I first heard the idea of cooperating mathematics with outdoor activities, and
teach with and within school garden, the sense of curiosity raised and I felt a
willingness of participating in as an adult and teacher, thus not to mention
students with full potential and curiosity at their age. We can make math discussions
happen anywhere, for example in sidewalk chalk, outside in the sunshine, in the
garden, instead of with pencil and paper and at a desk.
Stop 2: Constructivist Perspective
The theoretical support of constructivist learning is that outdoor math
practices are a meaningful way of implementing constructivist learning through
both a theory of analytical learning and a socio-cultural context. Aspects of
constructivism in psychological learning theory include the idea that learners
build new knowledge based on past experiences and understanding. Young children
are very much connected to the world around them as much of their early
learning is focused on their world experience. A socio-cultural interpretation
of constructivism is that by engaging in activities and logical thinking within
a group, learners build new knowledge. The outdoor activities mentioned that
building community through collaborative activity outside classroom provides
opportunities to share and interact on math. I found this is very interesting,
as my dad once told me when he was young living in the countryside, his secondary
school would normally have a ‘Seed Planting Break’ in early spring and a ‘Harvest
Break’ in late autumn, not only all students but also teachers have their
obligation to go back to their family farm and croplands, to do the farm work for
their family. Thus, these students would obtain knowledge of agriculture in
school and back home, and enhance their practices in the family yards straightaway.
Students coming from families with farming history learnt about sowing, transplanting
rice shoots, spreading insecticides by estimating crops and measuring areas, the
importance of healthy eco-system and sustainability and much more… through
constructivism.
Stop 3: Relate
to My Experience in the Orchard Garden Workshops
In UBC, we had Orchard Garden Workshop running from 2007. With curiosity
and interest, I participated three workshops this semester, we have done the
England tradition of apple wassailing, hands-on workshops such as planting seeds
for the coming spring and re-growing veggies from kitchen scraps for
sustainability, as well as learning diverse means of collaborating math
teaching with and in the garden. It was a great fun! I was impressed that every
member participated in the workshop has something to share from their living
and working experience, either from childhood memories to recent veggie
planting and gardening practices etc. Thus, I guess it won’t be hard for
preservice teachers to ground their teaching and spread ideas, since we humans
as the living creatures who share the planet with other species, we all stand
and start our life from this beautiful word. With the great hope of passing our
knowledge in mathematics and our responsibility of teaching sustainability to
our next generation, we will see more educators and practitioners join this
practice.
In the previous workshop, my friend Amanda who is a PhD student from
EDCP, and an experienced Grade 7 math teacher, led a participatory activity in
the garden about measuring and estimating perimeter and area of things in the
garden using our body part. For example, I used the extended distance between my
thumb and my index finger (about 15 cm) to measure the perimeter of a bench, used
my palm to measure the surface area of head of broccoli etc. I was inspired by
this demonstrative, engaging and descriptive activity, and thought about including
teaching fractions in the garden too. Similarly, Meg Moss
(2009) suggests using leaves and rocks to help students better understand the
concepts of perimeter, area and volume etc., and working in group would be wonderful
to include Complex Instruction here too!
It was a great pleasure to be the blog author and official photographer
of the UBC Orchard Garden, I had been taking pictures and writing blogs for the
activities and memorable moments, as it was mentioned by Meg Moss (2009) as a
good way to appreciate what was offered by the great nature and track what do
we learn from them. Here is the link if you want to check it out: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2127680076264956287#allposts/src=sidebar
Question 1:
Do you have experience connect outdoor activities with
teaching subjects (not restricted to mathematics) and help students see that learning
is not just something that happens only in the classroom and textbooks?
Question 2:
Have you incorporated school garden with teaching, not only in teaching
mathematics but other subjects?
Reference:
Moss, M. (2009). Outdoor
mathematical experiences: Constructivism, connections, and health. In Tasks
in Primary Mathematics Teacher Education (pp. 263-273). Springer,
Boston, MA.
Thank you for sharing your experiences in the Orchard Garden, Joy! I often think about what it might look to take more of my teaching outdoors. There is a tension I feel every time I think about it. How can I give students the freedom to explore YET maintain some control? How can I allow the land to do the teaching YET still have evidence of learning? How can learning in a garden setting be authentic and beneficial to the garden itself rather than an appropriation of outdoor spaces in order to meet a learning goal? I've always been so fascinated by how children can naturally engage with outdoor spaces. Years ago, I used to take my class to a museum with interactive displays and sure enough, in 30 minutes, many of them would say "I'm finished!" or "I'm bored!" On the flip side, when I have taken my students to the beach or to an outdoor space, I never have to tell them what to do. I have never had a child tell me they were bored. They almost instinctively knew what to do in the space, whether it was building a sand castle with a moat or playing tag using the trees as hiding places. I love seeing how they organically organize themselves, delegating roles and carrying out plans. So, yes! The outdoors is a great teacher and a wonderful learning space!
回复删除Thank you for your summary, stops and sharing of your own experiences AND your great photos! This is something I would LOVE to learn more about and actually participate in but I couldn't make it to the sessions this year due to being in Victoria....but now that I know it exists, next year for sure!
回复删除I've been thinking that my school would be a perfect location for a school garden because we have a retirement community next door. There are folks living there who may not have the mobility to garden as they once did but I'm guessing would love to help our students to do the work. I learned to garden from my grandpa (who was a hobby farmer) when I was 19. He was unable to continue his home garden due to his war injuries (and age) and so he directed me and I did the actual labouring. I visited him several times a week to water, weed, etc. I learned about so much more than gardening though - he told stories of his youth, a little about the war and stories of his farming adventures throughout his life. I was close with him my whole life but I still think back on this experience as the best times we spent together and I'm so grateful for that time. I think of all the benefits for our students and the folks in the retirement community in working together to create a garden. There is so much math involved with all aspects of gardening so that part seems to almost take care of itself.
Even though we don't yet have a school garden, I still do take students outside regularly for math class. We do all sorts of measuring, perimeter, rates, estimating, ratios, etc. outdoors. I look forward to learning even more ideas on how to connect with others, ourselves and nature moving forward.