Data Management, Probability, & Makerspace!

Well, our first math class in the teacher education program is coming to a close. Only one week left until we begin our placement block. In Week 10 we looked at Data Management and Probability. First, we received a great activity about probability involving spinners. This activity was very well organized and introduced us to using proper probability vocabulary, how to create spinners, and how to visually pick up on theoretical probability. This activity really provided a good example of the 3 parts of a lesson plan: minds-on, action, and consolidation. The minds on is clearly labeled, the action was creating the spinners and the consolidation could be performing some experiment to determine a specific probability. I maybe would have liked to actually create a spinner because it is more hands-on and provides more of a practical use. I also would have appreciated some real-life applications from this activity. In our lesson, I appreciated all the real-life examples of calculating mean, median, and mode, and which strategy may be best suited for that example. For instance, calculating the average year of cars in a used car lot may be best demonstrated by using the mode. I think this is an important aspect for me to keep in mind when creating lessons since students do respond better to situations that involve real-life.

In week 11 we attended an awesome Makerspace workshop. This workshop included 6 different stations that we were required to connect to the math curriculum and how we might use some of these tools in our own classroom. I had the chance to experience the woodworking station, the beading station, and the origami station. At the woodworking station, I focused on creating 2D and 3D shapes. This relates well to grade 5 geometry and spatial sense. Students could choose to create various 2D and 3D shapes we have been learning about and then you could have students name what others shapes are. This is a good tool to further practice prisms, cubes, quadrilaterals, and more. At the beading station, I decided to make a key chain. This is very easily related to patterning. You could have students create patterns either by colour, by shape, or both due to the variety present at this station. To make an activity like this more complex, you could give certain coloured beads a number value (blue=1, green=2, red=3, etc). By doing this you could then ask students to demonstrate a number pattern using the coloured beads using addition, multiplication, or subtraction. Depending on the difficulty you choose, this could be tailored to grade 1/2, or grade 4/5. This is also engaging and creative because students can make something of their own to keep/take home. Lastly, I worked at the origami station. Here I worked with paper to create objects. I instantly thought of geometry, working with lines, symmetry, and different shapes. I tried my best to create a butterfly, while I saw others creating cubes, pinwheels, and sailboats. This really would allow students to be creative and examine different lines of symmetry. Again I looked closely at the grade 5 level since that is what grade my placement class is. Below is a video showing how you could create a makerspace to tie in geometry.



I really enjoyed the makerspace workshop. This experience allowed me to pull out some of my creativity and focus on how I may be able to implement some of these activities into my own classroom. A lot of these activities are easy to implement in a school that doesn't have much access to technology, and also don't cost very much to make. All of these stations were hands-on, focused on creativity, and can allow for collaboration as well. For the second last session of this course, I thought this workshop was an amazing way to pull together a lot of the ideas and concepts we have been learning throughout this course. We had the opportunity to relate the curriculum documents to what we were doing, brainstorm activities that relate to the curriculum, and use different strategies to complete some sort of product. I found this interesting article that discusses how you can make makerspaces with limited space. Feel free to check it out! Next week we have our lesson plans due and our math forum presentations. I am excited to finish working through the lesson plan and exploring all the components of what goes into a lesson plan. I'm also looking forward to seeing some of the other group's forum games that I could potentially use in my own lessons or placement!