This past summer, CEEMS director Dr. Lynn Hodge and TPTE graduate assistants Ashley Walther and Michael Lawson, began their second year of work on Math Counts Projects with K-8 teachers in Campbell County, TN, and the surrounding area. Math Counts 2 was a four-day summer institute that focused on the ideas of mathematics misconceptions and learning progressions students encounter in elementary and middle school math content.
During the 4-day institute, teachers had opportunities to engage with challenging and creative activities, materials, and content, while at the same time sharing strategies and their perspective on how they would adapt these activities and materials to their own classroom. Teachers (and the facilitators!) had a great time discussing and experiencing activities:
- K-2 teachers used books to discuss counting and equality, and used cotton balls and string to discuss the concept of area and perimeter.
- 3-5 teachers used scavenger hunts and fair games to discuss probability and statistics, and used tangrams to discuss area and perimeter.
- 6-8 teachers even used calculators to explore multiplication/division of decimals, and blades of grass to conduct unit conversions.
The Math Counts Project is a multi-year project, funded by the Tennessee Department of Education and Math and Science Partnership grants. Not only are teachers able to attend summer institute to share their knowledge and grow as teachers, but follow-up sessions are conducted with these teachers throughout the year and into next summer.
