Research on investigations math program

I believe all K schools should provide computer science education for all students in each grade level. But even more urgently, we can use computer science to address the achievement gap in math that schools are still struggling to close. Algebra is often a key stumbling block for students, with research showing that nearly half of California students repeated Algebra I under the old state math standards.

Teaching math with computer programming — either as part of a standard math course or as an elective — can give mathematical concepts context and relevance while still requiring the same amount of rigor as traditional mathematics instruction. For example, the following exercise asks students to write a computer program to solve an algebraic problem:. Write a program for a yogurt shop to process the sale of frozen yogurt.

The sales tax is 8. In a traditional math classroom this would have been a simpler challenge, asking the student to only calculate the cost for one specific amount of yogurt. Students also learn to critique the reasoning of others and help each other during the program development for collaborative learning.

This is just one example of how computer programming can be integrated to enhance math instruction. With funding from the National Science Foundation and the California Department of Education, through our collaborative research with K partners, we have developed innovative educational computing and robotics technology tools that are available to schools and students for no cost.

More than schools in California have officially adopted and used the C-STEM curriculum in their classroom teaching, and the results have shown promise in closing the math achievement gap for schools with a large percentage of student subgroups that have historically lagged behind.

Many students in Hillcrest come from low-income families with parents who have not completed their high school education. The school reported pass rates of 94 percent for students using this curriculum compared to a schoolwide average pass rate of 61 percent on the same math examination for the Integrated Math 2 courses.

Based on this success and to accommodate student interest, the school has moved from offering one class of the course to offering seven classes of C-STEM Integrated Mathematics this year. Even teachers with no prior computer programming experience can quickly integrate computing into their classroom instruction after just a brief professional development training. Teaching math with computer programming presents an unprecedented opportunity to improve the success of all students, regardless of their race, gender, family background, income, or geographic location.

Algebraic and computational thinking can reinforce each other. It is a cost-effective way to close the math achievement gap and at the same time provide computer science education for all students without adding teachers or new courses.

Harry H. The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. Summer Adult Soccer. Meet Some Mormons. Have you ever wondered why so many Charter schools are having success in our area?

They seem to fill pretty quickly and more pop up every year. The core problem we face in Utah is low state education standards, especially for math. Investigations math and the set of curricula like it that encourage personal discovery of math facts are receiving a strong push into our schools by the state board. However, these curricula are all being condemned by hundreds of college professors and Nobel Laureates.

They see what's happening to our youth and are trying to avert a complete disaster in the future. I don't want to be misunderstood: group learning and discovery learning are parts of the tool chest of every accomplished teacher, but it is folly to turn these techniques into an ideology. If we mathematicians had to re-discover mathematics on our own, we would not get very far!

And indeed, TERC does not get very far. By the end of fifth grade, TERC students have fallen roughly two years behind where they should be. Schmid, Wilfried.

My school participates in the Investigati We have had great success with this program. Hope to hear from you! The first through third grade teachers are struggling with using it full force. I teach second and would like to collaborate with second grade teachers who use the program.

I am interested in time management, organizational tips, how to get others on board, how standards are met, if math journals are kept etc! Thanks for your help! Traditional math is the type of math most of us grew up with and it's been sufficient in the past to produce good math students. Traditional math focuses on a topic or chapter of study, has the students learn and practice it, then moves on. It is sometimes up to the individual to gleen what relationships that unit of study has with other units of study, unless they have a good teacher that guides them in their comprehension of such things.

There is nothing wrong with the traditional method, but newer methods have been developed to see if there is a better way to teach. Saxon math operates more along the lines of traditional math by focusing on math facts and "how to" do it, rather than an exploration at early ages in understanding numbers.

The difference between Saxon and "traditional" is that Saxon takes a study topic and never leaves it alone. In other words, when you move on to a new topic, the old topics are incorporated directly into the new topic so retention is greatly improved and math facts are taken in incremental chunks. Please read the brief overview below for additional information on this. The information I have put below comes from websites and information provided to me by the head of the school district's Investigations Math program.

One topic in particular settled the whole debate for me: Saxon math's 2nd grade curriculum says students will master multiplication facts to 5 and the 3rd grade curriculum says, "master all basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. In addition to this side by side comparison, check out Singapore Math's curriculum which has students starting the basics of multiplication in 1st grade! Investigations in Number, Data and Space looks and feels quite different from a traditional mathematics program.

The curriculum at each grade level is organized into units. Each unit offers two to eight weeks of mathematics work on topics in number, data analysis, and geometry and consists of a series of investigations that involve students in the exploration of major mathematical ideas. Because of the many interconnections among mathematical ideas, units may revolve around two or three related areas—for example, addition and subtraction or geometry and fractions.