How to introduce difficult mathematical concepts to your students
By Maarit Rossi
Sharing Good Practice
Students building the model of a square meter . Photo by Maarit Rossi
Many students and adults think that Math is difficult . This is a result of too many concepts being taught by telling and writing the rules and formulas . Students are then left to memorize these concepts without understanding them fully .
If possible , one way of introducing a difficult mathematical concept is to do a model of it . Students of all ages enjoy being creative . They will enjoy the learning process even more when they are actively involved in it . The younger the students are , the more important it is that they can touch , look at and test the properties of objects , thus strengthening their understanding of difficult mathematical concepts .
How many cubic meters are 2 cubic meters and 25 cubic decimeters ?
How many adults know the right answer ?
If you don ’ t , it could be that you didn ’ t understand it when you were being taught in school . This is a result of learning by memorizing without understanding .
For example from one study book : “ Decide which relationship you have to use . Write it down with the unit you want on the right hand side . Use the link between the units to work out whether to multiply or divide and by what . To change cm3 to mm3 , multiply by 1000 . To change mm3 to cm3 , divide by 1000 .”
Instead of looking at pictures of cube in textbooks , let students build the cube . How many faces , edges and vertices are in a cube ? Third grade students need a model of a cube in their hands , so that they can see and count the edges . Most of the six grade students can tell the number of edges without seeing the model .
Start from unit conversion of a meter and a square meter . Ask students to build the area of one square meter on the floor with sticks or one-meter long ropes . Compare the area of one square decimeter to the square meter .
Question : How many square decimeters go into one square meter ? ( 100 )
Next , let them compare the volume of one cubic decimeter to the built cubic meter . How many cubic decimeters go into one cubic meter ? ( 1,000 )
If students have been taught the unit conversion rules traditionally , based on remembering the rules , the only thing they remember is that they have to move the comma right or left , often wondering to which direction . Without really understanding , they usually do it wrong .
Once the students have built a model of a cubic meter with sticks , they will be able to give the answer by reasoning and understanding .
It is also very good to make the connection between one cubic decimeter and one liter . If the teacher has a container of one liter and one cubic decimeter , it is good to pour the water from one container to another and show that they have the same volume .
Did you already get the answer to our question ? How many cubic meters are 2 cubic meters and 25 cubic decimeters ? Answer : 2.025 cubic meters .
Maarit will be presenting at The Middle East Maths Teachers Conference on March 11th , 2017 in Dubai . For more information please visit www . middleeastmaths . com .
video link https :// youtu . be / SWkt3riHK3U
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