Math and MakerSpace - Olson Middle School

Teachers

Meet some of Olson Middle School’s teachers: Lindsay and Chase are 6th grade math teachers; Mike Humble is a math interventionist; Charlie Beck is the OMS media director. These fine educators worked to plan a six-day unit incorporating math, problem-solving, and effective small group work.

Teaching Strategy

Students will rise to the occasion to problem-solve, in creative ways, to accomplish a relevant goal. 6th Grade Math teachers Lindsay, Chase, and Mike, along with Charlie, take on collaborative problem solving with MakerSpaces. Students learn math through problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and inquiry. Using MakerSpaces, a passion of Charlie Beck, to achieve their learning goals was a huge success.

The three parts of this six-day unit (two days per station rotation) were:

• Spheros: In order to successfully navigate the maze, students needed to use their knowledge of angles, degrees, inertia, velocity (Science and Math learning targets)
• Breakout EDU: In order to successfully open the locks, students needed to use their knowledge of the order of operations, prime numbers, graphing and transformations, positive and negative numbers, integers, ordering rational numbers, measurement with Kg g, and area of complex shapes (Math, Science and Reading learning targets)
• Digital Printing (Tinkercad): In order to win the opportunity to 3-D print their structure design, students had to show their knowledge of surface area and volume. (Math, Tech Ed learning targets)

Each teacher added their expertise in the planning of this unit. Chase was looking for an engaging way to have 6th graders learn their math standards in a creative way. Charlie had the perfect answer: MakerSpaces, in particular, Spheros and Breakout EDU. Lindsay and Mike agreed and brought their expertise in facilitating student thinking and helping students use problem-solving strategies.

As students were assessed throughout this six-day unit, teachers observed student frustration and desire to give up, more so than engaging in problem-solving strategies. On day two, students became more engaged and comfortable with working through creative problem-solving and teamwork.

Teachers gathered student feedback. Overall, students enthusiastically agreed the unit was fun! Throughout the unit, students could be heard saying: “I get it!” “Let’s try this.” “I have an idea!” In the middle of May, this feedback was welcomed. Additionally, students were prompt to class, engaged, and behavior problems were non-existent. Teachers accredit this planning with student choice, student pace, and the connection between math knowledge and problem-solving.

See What It Looks Like

Watch the video to see all parts of this collaborative effort in action. The video begins with Breakout EDU with Lindsay Moen and Mike Humble facilitating student problem-solving, followed by Spheros and coding with Charlie Beck and finally, 3-D Printing with Chase Hillesheim.

Additional Resources

• Breakout EDU Presentation