Developing math strategies can help your student learn to think for themselves

“According to international standardized tests, American students lack math aptitude and problem solving skills” says Raj Shah, owner of Math Monkey of Powell. “This is due in part because we tend to just teach kids how to execute a solution instead of encouraging the student think for themselves. Here is a typical example: The teacher shows a problem and then demonstrates the solution, while students follow along. Next, the students practice a couple similar problems, using the same solution, followed by homework to reinforce it. What’s missing, according to Shah, is the opportunity to use and build their own critical thinking and problem solving skills first before providing “the solution”. This makes them poor problem solvers.”.

Problem Solving Curriculum and Lesson Plan from ThinkFun

ThinkFun Brain Labs are fun game-based programs that teach a proprietary problem solving philosophy called The Super Solver System. Your students will become “Super Solvers” as they develop thinking skills they will need to tackle problems in real life! Through these Brain Labs, students learn the three fundamentals of the Super Solver System:

* Super Solver Steps
* Super Solver Strategies
* Super Solver State of Mind.

These Brain Labs include step-by-step power points to help guide your instruction, and here we’ve shared the slides that introduce our Rush Hour Brain Lab. Rush Hour is ThinkFun’s most popular game, and over the course of this Lab students will become well-versed in the Super Solver Steps as they play through new challenges and reflect on their thinking!

Students will learn to use these four Steps when they become frustrated with a problem.

1) Understand the problem
2) Choosing a strategy
3) Do your strategy
4) Inspect what you’ve done

Don’t have it solved yet? That’s okay. Simply loop back to Step 1 as many times as needed. Remember U Can Do It!!! (Understand, Choose, Do and Inspect)

For a free Lesson Play and Curriculum Introduction…http://tinyurl.com/lw9aan

Work-site training for teachers

Guerrero is one of 20 math and science teachers taking part in a new program that pairs them with local businesses for summer jobs. The employers pay industry salaries, which vary from job to job.

The 37-year-old teacher of seventh-grade math in the Vail School District has spent the past six weeks working as a field engineer with Sundt Construction Inc. on the $15 million expansion and renovation of Tucson High Magnet School.

The industry internships give teachers a chance to see what’s actually happening in the workplace so they can, ideally, bring those real-world experiences to the classroom. The businesses, meanwhile, have a chance to help steer what they want to see in their future work forces.

“Everything the teachers learn is being put back into the curriculum,” said Jacquelyn Jackson, executive director of Tucson Values Teachers, an initiative assisting the internship effort. “They can take this knowledge back and say, ‘Here’s what you can do with this.’ It’s not just numbers on a page.”

21st-century skills movement grows

Three more states join national effort to build 21st-century skills into the core curriculum; self-assessment tool coming soon. Participants agree to update their standards and assessments to incorporate 21st-century skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, global awareness, and financial literacy.