School of Education

Faculty present examples of success from Greene County math project at ICTM conference

Lambdin and Lester also honored at event

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The ongoing success of the Greene County Math Advancement Partnership Project (Greene MAPP) was on display during two days of sessions at the Indiana Council for Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) fall meeting in Indianapolis November 6 and 7. Greene County teachers presented examples of their work along with IU faculty Enrique Galindo, associate professor of mathematics education in the IU School of Education in Bloomington, and Gina Borgioli Yoder, clinical assistant professor in the IU School of Education at IUPUI.

The project is a collaboration of the IU School of Education, the IU Department of Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences, and five school corporations in Greene County, Ind. Begun with an original two-year grant from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) in 2008, the IDOE provided a three-year grant of $1,103,548 last year. The project started with a focus on helping kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers learn new techniques for teaching math concepts and extended the program to teachers in 4th through 12th grades with the 2010 grant.

On Sunday Nov. 6, Greene County middle grades teachers Amy Goodwin, Julie Evans, and Melanie Miller presented with Yoder, Galindo, and University of Indianapolis Assistant Professor Jean Lee (an alumna who earned her PhD from the IU School of Education in 2010). Their session focused on developing Problem-Based Learning plans to teach math to middle school students. Monday morning, Evans and other Greene County high school teachers Cindy Thorlton and Jason Walton joined the higher education faculty to discuss Problem-Based Learning techniques for secondary students.

“I feel like they’re gaining a deeper knowledge,” Evans said of her experience using the techniques developed in the MAPP program. Evans said the collaboration between students helped many of the students she expected might fall behind to learn math much more thoroughly. She cited a story of a student who filled in at the last minute for a student unavailable to present the day the student’s group was to demonstrate its final work. “Eventually, they knew they had to know it,” Evans said.

Among the examples the teachers presented included a project where students solved a criminal case. The students examined evidence and calculated whether amateur rockets could have started a damaging fire. Another case involved algebra students determining the precise formula that food service personnel could use to create a snack. It had to adhere to strict federal guidelines limiting the amount of peanuts and chocolate in snacks for students.

Thorlton, who said she’s close to retiring, said the MAPP techniques have made math learning a much more valuable experience for her students. “I feel like this grant was invaluable for changing practice,” Thorlton said. “This will help me make the last years (of teaching) more effective.”

The teachers added that the program has proven valuable for giving teachers tools to enable students to find answers on their own. The result, they said, is much more confident students at the end of their coursework and measurable growth. Evans particularly cited the change in special education students who became very involved in the project work.

More about the Greene County MAPP program is available in this short video from the IU School of Education YouTube page.

Later on Monday at the ICTM conference, Yoder and pre-service teachers from the IU School of Education at IUPUI presented techniques for teaching math to the youngest learners. In a session titled “Using the Common Core to Construct K-2 Learning Trajectories for Linear Measurement and Algebra, Amanda Galle, Susan Burkle, Susan Hartley, Danielle Wetzold, Dawn Corbin and Denise Woodall presented what they developed as a result of studying Common Core math standards and how children learn mathematics. They constructed tasks that were grounded in the big ideas of K-2 linear measurement and algebra and many utilized children’s literature.


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Another note from the ICTM conference is recognition for two longtime School of Education mathematics education faculty members. The ICTM presented plaques to Frank Lester, emeritus Chancellor's Professor of Education, the Martha Lea & Bill Armstrong Professor of Teacher Education from 2000-2005 and emeritus professor of mathematics education and cognitive science, and Diana Lambdin, also a past Armstrong Professor of Teacher Education and professor of mathematics education, for their long service to Indiana math education. The plaques noted 46 years of service for Lester and 41 for Lambdin.

 
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