MathEd Forum September 2024

These are scattered bullet point notes from Lauren DeDieu's Margaret Sinclair Award Lecture

It was great to go to Forum and see a bunch of old friends. Many people I hadn’t seen since before the Pandemic. I don’t think I’d seen Lauren DeDieu since CMESG in 2018~19. The main event of Forum was Lauren’s talk about her work. Below, I’ve included some scattered notes about her talk.

Lauren organizes a lot of summer camps and enrichment activities in Calgary. I’ve wanted to get back in to “math camp” life for ages. One big idea, for me, to take away from her talk is to liase with your local summer camp organizational team. (For me, Camp UoT.)

High Level Questions

How do want student to experience and remember our courses?
How do want to shape their experience?
What do we want them to take away?
- We want them to develop habits of mind and skills
  - Bravery
  - Perseverence
  - Confidence (“I did this hard thing, and can do other hard things.")
What’s the 10 year memory?

Communication

Learning the content at a deeper level
Creating logical arguments
Meta-cognitive skills
Cultivates the ability of students to communicate complex ideas to non-experts
Communication skills are often ranked highly by employees

Graham, S., Kiuhara, S. A., & MacKay, M. (2020). The Effects of Writing on Learning in Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 90(2), 179-226. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654320914744

Active Learning

Active Engagement
- In class polling
  - Helps combat illustions of mastery
  - Pratice retrieval
- Group work
- Frequent low stakes online assessment

SNAP Math Fair

Course for future teachers
Creative and open ended assessments
~200 Grade 4-6 students
Two hour long
25% course grade
Submitted final report

Many STEM majors report that expressing creativity and their personality is often missing from their degrees.

Metacognitive Skills and Growth Mindset

Most university students are rather weak in metacognition.

Reflective prompts
- How does this connect to what I already know?
- What is most challenging here?
- What was this question trying to teach me?

Bangert-Drowns, R. L., Hurley, M. M., & Wilkinson, B. (2004). The Effects of School-Based Writing-to-Learn Interventions on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 29-58. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543074001029

Sense of Belonging

Submit an About Me discussion post
Facilitate the formation of study groups
- Make a big Google Sheet and have student sign up and contact each other

Links and References

Agenda: September MathEd Forum
Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award Lecture: Lauren DeDieu
Girls Excel in Math: GEM
- Motivation for starting GEM: create a safe space for girls to be enthusiastic about math
- Heavily designed with a teacher manual and lots of prep on the faculty side.
- Teachers sign up their schools and recruit from their school.
- Undergraduate volunteer helpes
- Meet twice a semester for 9-12am
Math Attack Summer Camp for Girls
50 Years of Children Drawing Scientists
SNAP Math Fair

Meta

Published: Sep 28, 2024

Last Modified: Oct 11, 2024