Vaasavi school student’s projects

-Ilkaya(Mathegramming Team)

The Mathegramming team’s partnership with Vaasavi school children resulted in a series of interactive and innovative Scratch mathematical projects, which enriched the learning experience and logical thinking of the children. The work started on September 12, 2023 to February 15, 2024 for the 7th graders. Scratch was introduced to the students in the way of making games, drawing shapes and asking questions which induced their creativity, thinking and the sense of building.

After that it was moved to math concepts like Fractions, integers, decimal multiplication, algebra and simple interest with visualization. Each concept was visualized in a specific way that students could learn the concepts well and explore in a creative way. Since it takes time work on the math project from scratch, we made some core modules for each topic that they could build on and make their own projects. A scratch account was created for each four classes. Then, students logged in with their class account and used the modules to create the projects with our help.

Shifts:

1. Transforming students from rote learning to visual learning of mathematical concepts that fosters curiosity, innovation and lifelong learning

2. Not challenging students to challenging the students with creative tasks to make their learning more interesting.

3. Low confidence in bringing out confidence in every student.

4. From no access to programming to access to programming platforms integrated with mathematics and making a space where students can be at their full potential.

Fractions were visualized using the circles. When the module was given to the students, they were asked to explore it and do what fun things they can do with it before going into the concept of fraction.

Here are some of the projects children made with the module on drawing a fraction as a circle

Decimal Multiplication was done using the area of the rectangle concept. Since, the module for this is easy to make instead of using the old module. Students learned to create their own module with the help of the team. First, they observed the blocks and found the pattern and the variables to make their own blocks.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/957761814

Integers were taken using two colored tokens one color for positive integers and other for negative integers.

In scratch, there is a student-teacher account facility available. With a teacher account, the  teacher can enroll many students to their class and create separate accounts for each student. The teacher can also post the update of their class, links for the required materials and can monitor each student’s activities.

Algebraic terms were introduced as each term is an area of a rectangle or a square. This method is particularly to help students to identify the like and unlike terms using different colors and lengths for each variable. This really helped the students to understand that ‘x’ and ‘’ are two different terms even though they have the same variable.

Simple interest was shown using the bar graph.

Learning scratch also inspired students to build their own fun projects not only on math projects but on fun interactive games.

Reflections:

My name is Dinesh. I stand for care and perseverance for myself and for others. While teaching Vasavi children I noted that I gave the students what I have expected in my school life, as I wanted to learn mathematics, programming in a logical way rather than mugging up. As a stem teacher I contribute my best to the Vaasavi students and I made them think logically from scratch and gave the problem statement and asked students to solve the problem statement on their own. With that some students were able to find the logic and who were not at that time, peer learning went well. Students helped each other and helped their friends to find the logic, I saw the quality of care in the students.

My name is Premkumar. I deeply care about courage and equality for myself and others. While working with Vaasavi children I learnt that I can add some value to the student’s Education. It is a big group of students which was challenging in the beginning and after it became easy to work with them and the students were very enthusiastic about learning new things and learning mathematics in a different way which boosted my confidence to work with them.

I have learnt many things in this journey and I have practiced deep listening throughout the process and I am able to see the commitment behind complaints and I am able to see the distinction between business as usual and acting from my full potential. It was also a learning journey for me also and I am grateful to work with Students.

My name is Soundhariya, and I stand for courage for myself and others. When I worked with the students of Vaasavi International School, I introduced a new way of learning math concepts through the Scratch program. In the traditional method of teaching math, students often felt difficult and disconnected. However, our Mathegramming approach filled this gap by creativity and logic of programming. The students showed great excitement while engaging with the Scratch program, and our team found themselves inspired by their curiosity and eagerness to learn. Working with the students was a fantastic experience for the Mathegramming team and the school management.

My name is Preethi. I stand for courage, kindness and perseverance for myself and others. For many kids including me when I was kid, math is a scary and confusing subject. The methods I learnt often involved lots of memorization and worksheets, which made me hate math. But in Vaasavi school we taught children math concepts with materials and did projects from scratch  With this method they learnt math more excitingly. Instead of just remembering math rules, they really get what they’re doing. Through Scratch projects, they learnt to think critically and logically as they debug their code and figure out how to make their programs work just right. While they were working on the project, they worked together and encouraged each other and helped each other out when they got struck somewhere. It built important skills like problem-solving and teamwork, and most importantly, it empowered them to become confident and creative thinkers. When we taught them math differently I saw changes in them, they were more engaged and confident in what they learnt. It made me feel that I’m making a shift and I feel accomplished.

My name is Sivashankaran. I stand for equality for myself and others. When teaching visual math, the way we teach and the things we use in class change. Instead of just talking and writing on the board, we do more activities where students get to draw and work with pictures to solve problems.