Math Instruction: Integrate, Investigate, Invigorate Bonny Buffington Using Brain Research To Design Effective Math Instruction

14 years sp ed resource room teacher 3 years intervention specialist, inclusion 12 years teacher trainer for co- teaching, inclusion strategies 21 years high school math teacher 23 years district administrator 2 years as educational consultant Nearly 75 years! Bonny Buffington

GAME Plan Goal – Participants will acquire knowledge about how the brain works and will learn to apply the knowledge in effective math instruction Activities – Powerpoint, 10+2, Sing-it, ABA Measurement – Notes on handouts Evaluation – Evaluation sheets

The Brain Stem

Involuntary actions – blinking, breathing, heartbeat Also called “reptilian brain” Collects and delivers sensory information to higher brain

The Limbic System Cerrebellum Hippocampus Amygdala

Gatekeeper Three levels of attention The need to BELONG The need to be SAFE

The Hippocampus Transferring memories Making new memories Inhibition Smell Location

The Cerebellum Movement Balance

“It's like a math co-processor. It's not essential for any activity... but it makes any activity better. Anything we can think of as higher thought, mathematics, music, philosophy, decision-making, social skill, draws upon the cerebellum....” Dr. Jay Giedd, National Institute of Mental Health The Cerebellum

STOP! Activity On a piece of paper, write down as much as you remember about the 2 parts of the brain that we have discussed. Try not to peek! Share what you remembered with a partner Look at your notes and add whatever you forgot to include

Frontal lobe Temporal lobe Parietal lobe Occipital lobe Cerebellum The Cerebrum

The Frontal Lobe How we interact with our surroundings. Our judgments on daily routines. Our expressive language. Assigns meaning to words we choose. Involves word association. Memory for habits and motor activities

The Parietal Lobe Location for visual attention. Location for touch perception. Goal directed voluntary movements. Manipulation of objects. Integration of different senses that allows for understanding a single concept.

The Occipital Lobe Vision

The Temporal Lobe Hearing Memory Visual perceptions. Categorizing of objects. T

SING-IT! Sung to the tune of “10 Little Indians” Touch the appropriate area of your brain as you sing: Temporal, Occipital, Parietal Frontal, Cerebellum

Higher Level Thinking Can actually generate NEW neurons (neurogenesis) Adds dendrites Increases the thickness of the myelin sheath Using the Gray Matter!

Stimulating Environment Affects Learning A child's ability to learn can increase or decrease by 25 percent or more, depending on whether he or she grows up in a stimulating environment.

Two times of ENORMOUS brain growth and pruning: During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old. Overproduction ends, pruning begins until about age 3

Second cycle of growth and pruning Dendritic growth spurt at age 11 in girls, 12 in boys Pruning phase during adolescence Age 13 – 18 lose 1% of gray matter per year If you don’t use it, you lose it!

The Teacher Effect Quality of classroom instruction is most significant factor in students’ brain development. Didactic instruction – teacher directed Interactive instruction – student actively engaged Which type do you think grows dendrites?

Sad Fact: Failing to engage students actively can actually make students dumber. Use it or lose it: If dendrites are not being used, they will be pruned.

Stop! ABA activity Stand up for REVIEW! Grab a partner Decide who will be A and who will be B A speaks for 60 seconds, nonstop B speaks for 90 seconds, nonstop A speaks for 30 seconds, nonstop

InvestigateIntegrate CommunicateInvigorate

INVESTIGATE: Students MUST master concepts in the concrete before they can understand in the abstract. Allow students to investigate concepts for themselves. Don’t just tell – Let them DO!

Probability Lab

Using technology

Area and Perimeter Lab 1. Using graph paper, draw a rectangle that has an area of 12 squares. 2. Draw 2 DIFFERENT rectangles with the same area. 3. Draw three OTHER shapes, other than a rectangle with the same area. 4. Find the perimeter of EACH of the shapes you have drawn. 5. Write a sentence to explain what you have found. PROBLEM: You are building an addition onto your house. You have selected the woodwork that you want to put around the room, but the company only has 70 feet of this woodwork. You want to make the room as large as possible. What should the dimensions of your room be if you want it to have as MUCH area as possible, yet use only the 70 feet of woodwork? Be ready to present your solution to the class.

Graphing Lab Look at the pattern below: 5, 8, 11, 14, ___, ___, ___ Fill in the next three numbers in the pattern. Write a description of the pattern Make a t-chart for each term in this pattern Graph the ordered pairs from your t-chart onto a coordinate plane. What is the shape of this function? Write an equation or sentence that shows the relationship between the term and the number. Investigate and determine: What would happen if the pattern went up by 4 instead of 3? What would happen if the pattern went up by 5 each term? Write equations for each graph generated by these changes. What have you noticed about these graphs?

INTEGRATE! Integrate math into real world situations and/or other disciplines

The Bike Project For this project, you and your partner(s) will be planning a mile bike trip somewhere in the United States. You may choose to travel a round trip beginning anywhere in the US or else miles one way beginning and ending anywhere you please.

The Pepsi Can Project PEPSI CAN PROJECT YOU are in business packaging and selling a soda pop. Your task is to develop and market a new container for a brand of soda pop that is in some way BETTER than the old cylindrical can, but the VOLUME must remain the exact same as the old cans.

INVIGORATE! Use movement and/or manipulatives in a purposeful way.

Hands On Equations Borenson and Associates

Walkabout

Gallery Hop

QUESTIONS??? Bonny Buffington Knox County ESC (740)