A standard lesson on putting like terms together can be made more interesting with a project that uses math tiles and stop-motion videos.
To help students learn more and be more interested in math, it’s important to include hands-on multimedia activities in the classroom. At the middle school level, math gets increasingly complex, so it’s important to show kids how things work in a way they can understand.
There are many ways for teachers to help their students learn to think critically. For this lesson, we wanted to find out how using manipulatives and technology, like algebra tiles and stop-motion videos, can help students learn math differently and keep them interested.
HANDS-ON, MULTISENSORY LEARNING
Given the benefits of physical manipulatives and video creation in math classes, we chose to use algebra tiles and stop-motion videos to create a learning activity that would encourage middle school students to use their critical thinking skills and creativity. By doing this, we were able to give students a fun place to work on their math skills while also practising important 21st-century skills like communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and imagination.
Research has shown that using physical manipulatives, such as algebra tiles, to model equations and formulas can improve math skills and help students see how to solve math problems. Concrete models and manipulatives help middle school kids understand abstract math ideas, like joining words.
As teachers try to include more students in their lessons, making videos can be a useful way to help all students learn. It has been shown that letting students create videos in math can help them do better in math and reduce their worry about math. Using video production, including stop-motion videos, in the math classroom can help students become more interested in and understand math better.
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THE LESSON
For this two-day lesson, students worked in small groups to join the same terms and make an algebraic statement easier to understand. After students learn how to use algebra tiles, please go through the planning process and simplify their expression; they are asked to use algebra tiles and a stop-motion movie to show how to combine like words to simplify an algebraic expression.
Day One: Students learned to use math blocks to show a given formula on the first day. We used a process based on questions and curiosity to get students to use what they already knew and practice using math tiles to represent algebraic expressions. We then asked them to move the tiles to make the word easier to understand.
First, students did their work on their own. Then, they checked it with a partner. This gave every student a chance to think about the task and led to talks between students about how they pictured and then reduced each phrase the teacher gave them.
At the end of day one, we showed the students this movie to show them how to use Stop Motion Studio to make their “combining like terms” stop-motion videos. Faith also made a sample movie to show students how their end projects could look. This was the hook for day two and got people talking about how slow things move in stop-motion movies. The next day, students returned to class excited to make their stop-motion movies.
With permission from Jessica Herring
Algebra tiles are used to help students work together.
Day Two: The students were put into groups of three or four and given extended expressions, a set of math tiles, and a planning paper. This graphic organizer was made to help students figure out how to solve problems and devise a clear plan for their stop-motion movies before they were given an iPad to record them.
After students worked together to finish the planning paper and use math tiles to simplify their expression, they were given an iPad and told to use Stop Motion Studio to show how streamlining works.
Students came up with creative ways to make their stop-motion movies. For example, one group animated in scissors by simplifying their statement by “cutting away” the math tiles they no longer needed in the frame. Students had to divide up jobs, solve problems, and work together on this project to make a smooth video with small changes between frames. Then, when the movies were done, we exported them as moving GIFs that would play repeatedly.
Because the students were so motivated and interested, most groups could finish their planning papers and make full stop-motion movies in just one 50-minute class. At the end of day two, students used Flip to think about what they had learned independently.
STUDENT AND TEACHER THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS
On Flip, the students were asked to answer three questions:
How did the math tiles help you put together similar words?
What worked?
What are you having trouble with?
As expected, many students said that math tiles helped them learn and understand how to combine like terms because they could see and touch them. One student said, “Algebra tiles helped me because they showed me how to add the shape and subtract using the colour.” Another student said, “Algebra tiles helped me because I could see what was going on and move them around to help me concentrate more.”
In their Flip notes, students also talked about how the stop-motion movie part of the lesson made them more interested. One student said, “Stop motion helped show how to simplify,” and another said, “Stop motion made the activity more fun.”
Making stop-motion movies also helped groups learn how to work well together. One student said that her group was able to share tasks by making the stop-motion movie together. After finishing their movie, her group watched it again to think about what they had done.
From the outside, it was clear that using math blocks and stop-motion movies helped students pay attention and understand what was being taught. Even for kids who don’t usually like math, there was a buzz of excitement in the room while they worked. One student who was having trouble said in answer to the Flip questions, “I loved doing this and want to do more.”
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