Above Average Fun With the iPod Touch: Merging Gymnastics and Math

As a homeschooling mom and math educator, I am always looking for ways to bring authentic learning experiences into our "classroom."  Our daughters are members of the North Shore Flairs competitive gymnastics team.  Throughout the season, we keep track of their scores and their team's results.  We use a great application called Meet Tracker.  A couple of weeks ago, our 4th grader began her unit on calculating averages using the Singapore Math (level 5B) math curriculum.  I love this program!  If you are not familiar with this program, Singapore pushes critical thinking and problem solving and offers many opportunities to see how math can be applied to various situations.  However, I thought it would be fun to take a "break" from the book and turn her world- the world of gymnastics.  When I mentioned the idea to our daughter, she beamed with excitement and could not wait to get started.

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The assignment is structured after a real gymnastics meet.  There are four rotations with an awards ceremony at the end.  Questions are to be answered at the end of each rotation and recorded on your handout.  Upon completion, the results are to be sent via gmail to your teacher (aka mommmy!).  Everything will be done electronically.

Rotation 1: Using the statistics compiled using Meet Tracker, calculate your season averages for vault, bars, beam, floor, and all-around.  One caveat, all work must be done by hand!  You can check your averages against those  on Meet Tracker. Note: Use only the scores from the four regular season meets.

Rotation 2: Using Kid's Zone Create-a-Graph, create bar charts for each event including all-around.  Using skitch, capture an image of your chart and include under rotation #2 on your handout. 

Rotation 3: Using the statistics for the four meets listed on Meet Tracker, list the team score for each meet and calculate the average team score for this year.

Rotation 4: State meets are the time to showcase all of your hard work over the past season.  For each event, compare your state meet results with the scores from the four earlier meets.  How do your state meet results compare with your season averages?  Determine the net change between your state meet score and your regular season average.  Recalculate your season average to include your state meet scores.

Awards Ceremony: Reflect on this past gymnastics season as you respond to the following questions.  Refer to the statistics gathered to support your responses. 

Which event posed the greatest challenge?  Overall, do you feel you improved throughout the season?

Technology Resources:

• Kid's Zone Create-a-Graph
• Google Docs
• Meet Tracker
• Skitch
  

Great iPhone Apps for Developing Mathematical Concepts

As both a homeschooling mom and a math educator, I feel strongly about providing students (whether they are my own or otherwise) meaningful opportunities to practice and further develop their mathematical knowledge.  In this age of technology, many educators are spreading their wings by developing iPhone applications that allow students to do just this.  There are many apps out there, however, two really stand out as fun, exciting ways to harness the excitement of the iPhone/iTouch while providing valuable learning experiences for students.
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Instant Counting by Arithmaroo

Recommended Age: Pre-school to 2nd grade

In February, the team at Arithmaroo launched the first of five iphone apps aimed at helping students develop number sense while improving their understanding of basic operations.  The first app, Instant Counting, focuses on transitioning from counting to recognizing and assigning values to numbers.  There are 4 levels involving the numbers 1-50. Up to four people can race against the clock while testing their numerical prowess in this fun, counting game.  This game takes a right-brain approach by providing visually stimulating images in a fun, learning environment.  Watch kids gain confidence in their mathematical ability right before your eyes.

**Look for Instant Adding, Instant Subtracting, Instant Multiplying and Instant Dividing to be released this spring! 

iLive Math by iHomeEducator

Recommended Age: 1st-6th grade

Earlier this month, iHomeEducator released the third in a series of applications focusing on real world problem solving.  The three apps include: Winter Sports, Animals of Africa and Animals of Asia.  Each application offers three levels of play and provides opportunities to compete wirelessly with others and post high scores on various social media sites.  In addition, these applications can easily be integrated into the classroom by providing teachers a means to track student progress.

iLiveMath:Winter Sports targets the four basic operations as well as data analysis.  Students are provided the opportunity to rework incorrect responses and teachers are able to track incorrect responses via email for each student.  There is also a way for teachers to determine if incorrect responses are due to misconceptions or simply accidental errors.  From ice sculpting to moguls, this app links math concepts to extreme sports while providing extreme fun for the student.

iLiveMath Animals of Africa allows for collaboration with other students through various social media while solving over one million questions about 26 different animals that roam Africa. What fun!  According to the creators, this application focuses on the basic operations as well as percentages with difficulty increasing with each level.

Level 1: Addition and Subtraction with numbers 1 to 10
Level 2: Includes Multiplication with numbers 1 to 50
Level 3: Includes Percentages with numbers 1 to 100

iLiveMath Animals of Asia carries in the same tradition as the previous iLiveMath apps.  Classroom "drill-n-kill" is replaced with engaging problems that integrate zoology with various mathematical concepts.  The basic operations are covered along with measurements of time.  Once again, difficulty increases with each level.

Level 1: Addition and Subtraction across beginning concepts in time
Level 2: Includes Multiplication across mins, hrs, weeks, months
Level 3: Includes difference between years

Like the other apps, Animals of Asia allows educators to track student responses as well as share answers via Twitter.

Each of these three iLiveMath apps are engaging and succeed in making mathematical connections to real world scenarios thus allowing math to "come alive" for students.  This is a great alternative to traditional practice while still providing meaningful problems to further develop concepts.

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I am always looking for new and exciting ways to make math interesting and to engage our children.  These two groups, Arithmaroo and iHomeEducator, should be commended for taking risks and striving to tap into this new media of e-learning.  Either application could easily be implemented into the classsroom while providing authentic learning opportunities for students. Check them out and enjoy watching students smile while doing their math!

Developing Number Sense With Arithmaroo

The team at Arithmaroo has just launched the first of five iphone apps aimed at helping students develop number sense while improving their understanding of basic operations.  The first app, Instant Counting, focuses on transitioning from counting to recognizing and assigning values to numbers.  There are 4 levels involving the numbers 1-50. Up to four people can race against the clock while testing their numerical prowess in this fun, counting game.

This application takes a predominately "right brain" approach to learning.  For example, vivid imagery replaces static, black and white problems.  Also, pattern recognition replaces the standard "drill and kill" repetition.  Throughout the game, there is a timed element.  While it does not serve as the primary goal, this aspect should appeal to those who enjoy healthy competition.

Being a math educator myself and a homeschooling mom of four, I was eager to have each of our four children try this app.  We even took my iPod Touch to gymnastics and passed it around to others.  The team at Arithmaroo should be proud because it became an instant hit with the younger crowd.  While my 2nd and 4th graders were not challenged by the content, they enjoyed the "game" aspect and raced against each other to see who could get the most correct.  Our preschooler, on the other hand, found the game fun and engaging.  As I watched him throughout the activity, I could actually "see" his recognition of the numerical values improve.  He became faster and more confident.  He even commented, "this school is fun."  I even had a mom (and fellow math teacher) comment on how this is a great way to solidify the understanding of one-to-one correspondence and the modeling of numerical values.

Instant Counting is an instant hit!  This is a game parents and teachers can feel good about letting children play. You can actually watch children develop confidence in their mathematical ability while building a great foundation for more advanced skills. Arithmaroo, you should take a bow!