The Turtle Wins the Race

At the beginning of the semester I asked my 1P class about their thoughts of math and this was the exchange with one of my students:

Student: "I am scared of math".  

Me: “What are you scared of in Math?”

Student: “Numbers"

Me: “What is scary about the number 5?”

Student: “It has curves and straight lines”

I was thinking that I had my work cut out for me.  At first, this student didn’t do very much, I mistakenly thought it was because they were totally disengaged, but I soon realized this wasn’t the case.  They were observing and thinking and processing a lot of information in their head.

After a couple of weeks, this student would start to share an idea and would say “But, I am wrong”.  I would encourage them to continue sharing and as it turned out, no, they weren’t wrong, in fact they were correct.  I kept reminding them that they had good instincts and to trust them.  A couple of weeks after that the language changed to “I think I am wrong”, again they weren’t.  Then my breakthrough moment came with a warm up question, which was an old EQAO question, shown below at the left.  This student grabbed the whiteboard marker, stood up and said, “I can do this!”.  It took about 5 minutes for them to work through the solution, shown on the right, but it is correct and yes, they can do it!

I have come to understand that this student spends a lot of time planning in their head and then does the work.  I would really like to Watching this student  the amount of “math” they are doing in a very methodical, well thought out way, that the other students who appeared to be “good at math” aren’t really doing.

This brings me to the Sphero activity.  All it entailed was students have the student have the Sphero roll 60 cm, make a square and then do the “Sphero Challenge”, which was to program the Sphero to land on each number in order (see diagram where the numbers are on the corners of each tile), pausing on each number for 2 sec in the shortest possible time. Start on position 1.

Students had the option of working in pairs or by themselves as I have a small class and enough equipment to go around.  They had never worked with the Spheros before and so this was their first introduction to block coding.  They quickly realised they only needed the roll block code to perform this task, shown below, and understood what each of the parameters meant.  The first one was the direction, the second one is the speed, the third is the time. 

The student was able to have the Sphero roll 60 cm and then figured out how to make a square.  They were a little nervous when I asked them to make a square, the response was "Oh boy!", but they very quickly realized they just need to do the same command 3 more times, but change the direction.

By this time, the other group of students was working on the “Sphero Challenge” and had already got their Sphero to go from position 1 to 2 and were close to getting it to 3.  This is when it became very interesting, my “Scared of Math” student gets a meter stick, puts in on the floor nowhere near the napkins.  Next they have the Sphero roll beside the meter stick and then says, “20 cm at a speed of 20 per 1 second”.  Then they go to measure the distance between napkin 1 and napkin 2.  They sit on the floor do some more thinking and then test their code for position 1 to 2 and it works.  I get a high-five!

At this point the other students are still having difficulty getting their Spheros to properly go from position 2 to 3.  I ask them what they think the problem might be? Are they going to fast?  Are they aiming the Sphero properly each time?  Is there enough of a delay at each position to allow for the Sphero to orient itself properly?  They weren’t sure, they just kept guessing and testing.

Back to my “Scared of Math” student… they measure the distance between each napkin, then sit on the floor and change the code, then goes back to the napkins and tests it out.  Position 1 to 2 still works, 2 to 3 now works, only one turn left.  They think about it, change the code, and test it out.  It works!  “YES!!!” a huge smile, a twirl, and a big sense of accomplishment.  Then they ask "Can I go and try some other things?"  Of course!

Other students… still guessing and testing... and then I thought...“The turtle wins the race”.

What a difference 2 months makes.  From “I am scared of Math” to coding a Sphero which required computational thinking, logical reasoning, proportional reasoning, geometry, just to name a few.  The change in mindset is so impressive.  The other group eventually completed the "Sphero Challenge", but got frustrated because they weren't completing the task as quickly as they wanted.  

I really enjoy teaching the applied students.  I learn more and more every day.  I hope by the end of the semester, all of them become as confident as my "I am scared of math" student.