Want to bring math to life for a middle schooler? Stick the worksheets back in a folder and pull out a game board.<\/p>\n
In a new partnership called Dins and Dogs \u2013 a nod to each school\u2019s mascot \u2013 Furman math and science students are meeting biweekly with students from Berea Middle School to work through open-ended STEM questions together.<\/p>\n
This is not a tutoring program, an important distinction to Casey Hawthorne, assistant professor of math education. Instead, the older and younger students are exploring mathematical concepts together. There\u2019s no set path for where the inquiry will take them, no answer sheet to check.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do mathematicians do? They have a question and they start playing with it,\u201d Hawthorne said.<\/p>\n
For many of the new teams, that meant starting with a game. Some, for example, are exploring tic-tac-toe. How many possible paths are there to victory? How many combinations lead to a stalemate? What happens if the game grid is four-by-four instead of three-by-three?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be applied to nearly everything,\u201d said Emily Fowler \u201925. \u201cWe\u2019re just finding random board games and finding ways math relates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Computation is involved, but so are concepts such as pattern recognition and data analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing mathematical things with not very innately mathematical concepts,\u201d said Joey Maness \u201925.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne has always prioritized getting his students, especially preservice teachers, into local schools. But this year-long partnership takes that to a new level.<\/p>\n
Most middle school students have never participated in what Hawthorne calls \u201cauthentic math.\u201d That is, they\u2019re learning methods and doing practice problems, but the work often isn\u2019t tied to anything real for them.<\/p>\n
Now, the Berea students are exploring tangible questions and they\u2019re doing it alongside college students who are exploring, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cDins and Dogs, you\u2019re not just figuring out the answer to the question, you\u2019re also learning how to learn,\u201d said Michael Arsiniega, the middle school\u2019s site coordinator for Communities in Schools. He said the program gives his kids the chance to be both teacher and student.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne hopes the younger students will feel the leveling effect of no one having an answer at the outset.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll information in that session is coming from that moment,\u201d Maness said. \u201cYou contemplate as you move along.\u201d<\/p>\n
After just one meeting, Fowler already felt the energy of joint discovery with her younger partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in it together,\u201d she said. \u201cThe problem-solving and the thinking behind it, we were just right alongside each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six Furman students are participating this first year, each paired with two Berea students. Arsiniega said it was a priority for him to offer a program for students who are ready for challenges.<\/p>\n
The teams will meet for an hour and a half every other week until April. Then they\u2019ll present their work together at Furman Engaged, a day dedicated each year to highlighting the diverse and immersive learning experiences made available by The Furman Advantage.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne hopes that answering their own questions will help the younger students to learn that math comes from people and to begin to self-identify as mathematicians.<\/p>\n
On an even more basic level, his students hope to show their younger partners that math is worth their energy and attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo a middle schooler, a college student is kind of the ideal, the coolest thing they\u2019ve ever seen in their life,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cTo see college students talking about how cool math is might influence them to think math is cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Maness: \u201cWe\u2019re giving them a taste of, \u2018Oh, this is something I can do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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