Our December Collab Lab focused on student run enterprises. We were interested in the kinds of experiences participants hoped students might gain through participation in a student run enterprise.
Our process for the session took a slightly different approach, starting with how we wanted to students to talk about their experience. Our goal was statements that demonstrate a high level of engagement, but are also evocative enough that we could start to imagine how a student run enterprise might foster such an experience.
The initial brainstorming process generated a long list of experience statements, including:
“I worked really hard because the results really mattered”
“This program helped me find my passion.”
“The work here is important to me personally.”
“I’m glad I can be myself, express my mind freely.”
“I got to know myself better.”
“I grew as a person.”
“It was my favorite class ever.”
“I never thought I could do this.”
(with pride) “This is my project!”
“I chose to stay because of this.”
“I was able to make decisions that allowed me to take risks and learn from mistakes to help our business be more successful.”
“I learned how to fail.”
“There are real consequences for my actions in this enterprises.”
“I felt more empowered than ever.”
“This experience allowed me to really own my learning and let me take something I am interested in to a level I couldn’t have done without this experience.”
“I have a voice and I have value.”
“I understand my role.”
“I am proud of what exists here.”
“I am valuable to this business.”
“This experience helped me see how a business could not only help me but help the community.”
“The experiences I’ve had make me think about what I can do to help my community.”
“This experience allowed me to grow as a student leader and collaborate with others.”
“I have a better understanding of money, how it is created, and whether or not it has value.”
“I used the skills I acquired to further my knowledge and abilities.”
“I remembered doing this activity in class and could apply the technique learned to help myself.”
“This helped me learn how to apply my skills in the real world.”
“As a person, it made me make better decisions. As a member of my community it made me open my eyes and grow up.”
“It helped me figure out what I want to do with my life.”
With that list in hand, we asked participants to form small teams to talk through ideas for how a student run enterprise might help students have one or more of those experiences. Our second process change was to have these ideas expressed as “What if we…” questions. We wanted to see if that led to more expansive thinking. Here’s what they came up with:
Individuality Initiative
We hope students might say…
“I learned to fail”
“This program helped me find my passion”
“I have a voice. I have value.”
What if we…
created an environment where students weren’t as fearful of failing, but instead were encouraged to learn from their failures ;
created a survey or interview process to identify appropriate enterprises and their roles within them;
encouraged an education system that catered to helping students find their passion instead of telling them what they should be?
Failing with Open Minds
We hope students might say…
“I learned to fail”
“I found my passion”
What if we…
allowed kids to fail;
allowed kids to pursue their passion and explore themselves;
sourced innovation from kids?
encouraged all to fail of front of an authentic, receptive audience with an open mind while pursuing a curiosity which can become a passion after taking a risk?
Sustainable Futures/Business with an Impact
We hope students might say…
“This experience connects passion to community and allows us to thing about our impact”
What if we…
challenge them to make a product or service that helps the environment or community;
challenges them to create a business or product that reduces their impact on the environment;
create a business that would help their specific neighborhood issue?
Change Agent
We hope students might say…
“I feel more empowered than ever”
What if …
this purpose already means something to me;
I am interested to lead;
we make the community better?
Milwaukee Made
We hope students might say…
“It was so great to work with other students of all ages and to make money and learn how to be successful in a business.”
What if we…
break down barriers to students creating a business;
we worked with an elementary school, high school, and college to create a store/experience for students to learn from each other to make a real business;
raised confidence and creativity through working with college professors and students in collaboration;
used the new Marquette space in Schlitz Park to sell the produces of student enterprises and employ high school students to work in the store/paid students for the products they sell;
collaborate with Marquette, MATC, Pathways High & Golda Meir to do so?
Try – Fail – Reflect (repeat)
We hope students might say…
“I learned how to fail.”
What if we…
take time to reflect after failure;
normalized failure;
push students outside of their comfort zone?
Thanks to The Commons for providing the space and to our featured participants for sharing their expertise and ideas:
Our November Collab Lab focused on opportunities to engage students around green infrastructure. We asked participants to brainstorm ideas around different types of green infrastructure as they are designed, installed or in service, using the inventory provided within the City of Milwaukee’s Green Infrastructure Plan. From there we paired up educators with representatives from industry, higher-ed, non-profits, and local government and had them flesh out a specific idea in greater detail.
Here’s what they came up with:
Identify targets sites for green infrastructure
Identify vacant lots in the students’ neighborhood to active and install stormwater trees, gardens, community art.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Stormwater trees
Native landscaping
Regenerative stormwater conveyance
Greenways & land conservation
Phases targeted:
Design
Installation
Desired experience for students:
Mapping GIS
Think about neighborhood & community
This is worth it!
Evidence and argument
Budgeting and finance
Understanding different land use/space factors
History of the area, why a particular lot is vacant
Cultural experience of neighborhood as an influence to art
Durability of art
What students will need:
Mapping software
Data
Facilitator/guides to support — experts, & exemplars
Documentation and presentation skills
Who students should meet as part of this work:
UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning
Youth Council @ City Hall
Pocket parks tour
How students might share their work:
Video
Podcast
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Story Map
Social media/website
Share with community service organizations, the experts that helped them.
Storytelling– “What did I learn”
Art within Native Landscaping
Design art projects within a native landscape
Green infrastructure targeted:
Native Landscaping
Desired experience for students:
Cross curricula – art/science/math
Exploring new things
Youth voice/leadership
New materials
Mentoring
Culture
What students will need:
Guidance/leadership to understand and get excited
Research on native landscapes, sustainable materials (what they are, why they are important)
Location, calendar, transportation
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Partner with college students
Landscape/gardening experts
How students might share their work:
Community grand opening, with presentation by youth
Garden Gallery (art) night
Low tech watering systems
Create olla pots or other system to water gardens when students/volunteers may not be available to do so.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Phases targeted:
Design
Installation
In Use
Desired experience for students:
Research the history of olla pots
Design a system where rain barrels fill the pots (how many rain barrels?)
Calculate how much water might be captured
Determine the size of pots that might be necessary for a particular garden or space
Monitor gardens to make sure the system is working
Compare performance at different times of year
Evaluate how the long the system can run without support
Calibrate the outflow rate from rain barrels so that it is most effective
What students will need:
History of olla pots & agriculture
Math — planning for the # of pots for the area
Science — expected rainfall for the area, ecology, human impact
Communication skills — share what they did
Reading & writing
Arts — decorating barrels, making their own pots @ schools with kiln [can we make our own rain barrels?]
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Community connections for support in monitoring
Environmental engineers
fresh coast guardians from MMSD
Teens Grow Greens for different ideas on irrigation
Pottery infrastructure
How students might share their work:
video story
Present @ Science Strikes Back? [Escuela Verde?]
Share after a full growing season for data collection
Share publicly — news, radio, social media, USDA
Butterfly Garden
Reclaim paved area of “playground” for stormwater management and wildlife habitat restoration.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Native landscaping
Bioswales
Depaving
Soil Amendments
Phases targeted:
Design
Installation
In use
What students should experience:
Design process — native plants, permaculture, pollinator habitat, education of younger students
Self directed personalized learning
What students will need:
Research skills
Curiosity
Information sources
Access to professionals/experts
How students might share their work:
Photo voice
Signage
Newsletters & written media
Permeable paving meets math
Use installation of permeable paving as a chance to exercise mathematical thinking.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Permeable paving
What students should experience:
Apply math concepts (geometry, algebra, etc) when designing permeable walkway through a park
Art, design, science of materials
Exploration of career paths
Presentation of findings
What students will need:
Access to practitioners
Manipulation/manufacturing of materials
Best practices for fitting pieces together
Permeable paving vs alternatives
Cost data for possible choices — installation, maintenance, long term costs
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Practitioners: non profits, contractors, college student mentors
MMSD
Artists
Landscapers
Tours of UWM School of Freshwater Sciences, GWC, MMSD, etc.)
How students might share their work:
Green Students Conference
Opportunity for students across schools/districts to present GI projects to each other
Green job fair — in part, the conference could be funded by exhibitors (engineers, landscapers, etc.) who do a job fair
GI Scavenger hunt
Inventory and map green infrastructure within students’ community; identify where water is coming from; find as many examples as possible, create a map using GIS software
What students should experience:
The possibilities that exist in different areas
Problem solving using mapping software
Ability to visualize things on a map
What students will need:
Mapping software and an introduction to using it
General location for finding green infrastructure
Lesson on green infrastructure installations and interventions
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Students who did bigger project
How students might share their work:
Story map
Water quality assessment
Assess the water quality in the local community
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Rain gardens
Soil Amendments
What students should experience:
Data analysis
Hands on development of project
Ownership & involvement
Success & Impact
What students will need:
Space
Native plants
Raspberry Pi computer
Types of soil
Types of compost
Gravel
Sensors for moisture/contamination
Water quality test kits
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Upham Woods — digital observation kits
Sweetwater – Adopt A Storm Drain
River Keepers
Plastic Free MKE
How students might share their work:
Social media
Murals
Logos
Mottos
Peer to peer education — teach others to continue project
Brand it
Give it legitimacy
Greening Alleys
Create a list of priorities for green alleys near a school, identify and collect the data to use in prioritizing the alleys.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Green streets and alleys
What students should experience:
Surveying the neighborhood
Identifying improvements and analyzing lowest cost estimates of putting in improvements
Communication of survey, improvements,
What students will need:
Access to expertise
Computers/data sets
Estimation software/templates
Who students should meet as part of this work:
MMSD — Lisa Sasso, Bre Plier, Nadia Vogt
DPW — Nader Jabber
WDNE — Ben Benninghoff, Samantha Katt
Civil Engineers — Justin Hegerty (Reflo), Kara Koch (SSE)
Communications specialist
How students might share their work:
Entering the project in a competition
Via website/communication pieces they design
Presenting at a conference
Presenting to politicians/city administrators
Intervention as Art
Create an environmental solution that is a form of art
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns [start here but then see where it may connect to something else]
What students should experience:
Allow students to develop creative problem solving, apply multiple disciplines (math, science, etc.) in order to create a solution
Allow student to assess the financial components/cost of implementing the art
What students will need:
Location to meet
Access to technology and materials
Sample size materials to create prototype of artwork
Transportation
Design expertise (art coaches/artists)
Self determination
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Artists
Engineers
Government officials & leaders
Foundations
Contractors (in trades)
How students might share their work:
Social media
Press engagements
Unveiling events
Presentations
GI target map
Map neighborhood to identify opportunities to install green infrastructure
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Native landscaping
Bioswales
Green streets & alleys
Soil amendments
Phase targeted:
Design
What students should experience:
Gain understanding of neighborhood and existing conditions
Gain understanding of community stakeholders
Build researching skills (reputable data)
Become informed skeptics
Gain understanding of types & applications for green infrastructure
What students will need:
Background in types of GI
Mapping support — map individual neighborhoods, add all to larger map
Critical thinking/perseverance
People skills — coaching/modeling
Arrange stakeholder meetings/presentations
Watershed locations
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Reflo
Eco Office
Environmental Engineers
SFS
Community organizations in neighborhood
How students might share their work:
Social media posts
Health fair at North Division
MPS STEM Fair
Heat Islands
Monitor/change heat island effect through interactive materials
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Native landscaping
Bioswales
Stormwater trees
Depaving
Green streets & alleys
Greenways & land conservation
Green roofs
Phase targeted:
In use
What students should experience:
Gain an appreciation for environmental awareness
Visually see how GI can reduce heat island effect
What students will need:
Thermal imaging – drone
Students map with “hot spots”
Identify areas that would benefit from green infrastructure
What could be done– trees plants, gardens
See how different GI might reduce heat
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Engineering firms with surveyors
College students who work with GIS
How students might share their work:
Presentation to town, city, community
Design plan
From the areas identified, have students go to companies to implement or advertise their action plan
Designing School Building Projects
Allow students to design landscape areas; promote mentor-ship to have older students work with younger students; during construction, kids can monitor waste vs recycled materials
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Native landscaping
Stormwater trees
Soil amendments
Phase targeted:
Design
Installation
In use
What students should experience:
Sense of ownership, cooperation, achievement
Growing consumable product
Science
What students will need:
Planting science and how to nurture
Planting buddies
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Contractors
Landscapers
Engineers
Business relationships for recycling
Farmers
How students might share their work:
Through food on table
Science & math through recycling
Personal development through succeeding in the process
Watershed Challenge
How can we positively effect the watershed in a way that will create buy in and support from the community
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Rain gardens
Stormwater trees
Soil amendments
Phases targeted:
Design
What students should experience:
Career connections
Get out in the field
Community connections – picking up trash connected to effects on watershed, talking to community, brainstorming community problems
Urban water cycle – treatment plant
Science/environmental connection — labs to “see it”
Interdisciplinary — data, writing, technology
What students will need:
Background knowledge– getting off campus, maps science
Access to to local experts
Community connections — talking to people in neighborhood, observing the location
Structure/system for the design part of the project
Who students should meet as part of the effort:
Water school
Washington Park Urban Ecology Center
Storm Water Solutions
Engineers that design infrastructure — public & private
Go to a school that did a similar project
Groundworks MKE
Milwaukee Water Commons
Reflo
MMSD (Christina Taddy)
River Keeper
Plastic Free MKE
Sweetwater (Adopt a Storm Drain)
Upham Woods
Artful Capstone
Bring math, science, and art together for artful landscaping solutions; understanding the design process
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Permeable pavement
Green Roofs [hotels & apartments]
What students should experience:
Awareness of environment
Seeing project through to completion
Impact on community
Puzzle solving
Design process
Connecting things to their everyday life
Opportunities to see career options
What students will need:
Time
Parental support
Access to opportunities
Mentoring
Inspiration
Pragmatic examples
Connections to their lives
Opportunity to take risks
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Mentors
Government officials
Home owners
Community members
How students might share their work:
Authentic audience
Other students around the world through
Tik Tok
20 20
15s Film
Pachakucha
Thanks to The Commons for providing the space and to our featured participants for sharing their expertise and ideas:
Catherine Bronikowski — Math Dept. Chair, North Division High School
While MATC students were doing fieldwork to create a survey of the coal handling area for our Zoo Train Challenge, they took the time to shoot some 3D photos. Those images are now available on Google Maps, and give a good look at the site our Zoo Train students are focused on.
To view other images in the series, pull up the Zoo on Google Maps, and click the icon of the little person in the lower right corner of your browser
Our 4th season of Collab Labs kicked off on October 10th with a focus on building skilled trades talent. We began the discussion by building an inventory of the skills we’d like to see students develop. These fell into two broad categories:
Technical Skills
Design Skills
Read blueprints & technical drawings
Fine motor skills/hand-eye coordination
Math and measurement
Budgeting/Understanding job costs
General understanding of construction trades
Equipment/resource planning
Soft Skills
Creativity/Innovation/Problem solving
Fail Fast
Safety
Ability to take constructive criticism
Ability to take direction
Self Advocacy
Self discipline/integrity/follow through/show up ready to work
Self confidence
Determination/grit
Collaboration/Interpersonal skills within a team
Communication skills
Ability to listen
Willingness to learn/ask thoughtful question
From there we asked each discussion group to talk through experiences that do or could provide opportunities to build those skills. Here’s what they came up with:
Build2Learn Camp $500 stipend for summer workshop
European model – apprentices
Engage employers – job shadow
Inspire/Awe – Makerspace Home Depot creative space
Intentionally incorporate soft skills into lessons
Provide high interest projects
Bring industry speakers into the classroom
Real world applications with purpose – e.g. 3D prosthetics
Mentorships
Teamwork: moving a project to completion
Presenting/exhibiting craft work
Building confidence with no or low risk simulations.
Leverage connections and take them to scale
Address skills gaps with “it takes a village” perspective
Get professionals into classrooms
They can learn from students
Talk with students, not down to them
Our final step was to have each group take those ideas, talk through what a program might look like, and share that out with the entire group. Here’s where they landed:
Project Start to finish real world application
Build a house
Bring in industry
Have mentors
Engage employers
Build soft skills
Build technical skills
Goal is to have job ready workers, provide apprenticeships, job opportunities.
Identify industry partner/employer
Ask “What do you need from us?”
Identify what workforce needs exist
Identify training/skills needed
Company sponsored projects
Materials or time
Interviews of
the company
the student
Interdisciplinary/project based learning
Working with other schools/districts
Protocols
Feedback models – Hard on content/soft on person
Leverage technology
Skype team meetings
Drone/webcams of projects progressing
Build excitement about upcoming technologies
Early Hands-on Exposure
Youth apprenticeships
Out of comfort zone
Peer mentorship
Self-realization/mediation
Options (electives)
Students: Littles – early exposure
Education Workplace: Welcoming anti-racist, data-driven, performance based
What’s needed to move forward: Looking past personal bias, equal access to opportunities, a cultural shift
Industry-owned Youth Apprenticeships
IDing under-served population
Mapped to skilled trades values and skills
Bringing the industry straight to the families
Thanks to CG Schmidt for sponsoring our food and beverages for the evening, The Commons for providing the space, and to our featured participants for sharing their expertise and ideas,
Peter Graven – Earth Science/ Life Science/ Robotics, Deer Creek Intermediate School (St Francis)
Craig Griffie – Technology Education, Brown Deer High School
The weather was less than ideal, but the Public Math booth was there for the Doors Open Milwaukee Block party. Visitors had the chance to play with math actives and test their Venn diagramming skills with a street survey.
Our math booth was out at Maker Faire this weekend testing out activities with kids and families. Mary Langmyer brought her enthusiasm and wagon full of materials to engage students in math explorations.
Our Collab Lab series is back for a 4th season! Join us on October 10th to kick off the series with Collab Lab 29: Building Skilled Trades Talent. The complete schedule for the season is below.
This past spring, through a grant from Northwestern Mutual, we completed a project that identified factors that drive the willingness of teachers and mentors to participate in initiatives aimed at developing computational thinking skills. Here’s a summary of that effort and what we found.
Rationale
Solid computational thinking skills[1] are useful across domains and provide a key foundation for the development of tech talent. Developing these skills within computer science classes is constrained by several factors:
Computer science classes are not widely available, particularly in schools that serve diverse populations.
Educators certified to teach computer science are in short supply.
There are limited incentives for teachers to pursue certification and few educators do.
Computer science classes are largely taught at the high school level. If we want to develop strong computational thinking skills among students, they need exposure to and practice with them throughout their elementary and secondary school years.
A strict focus on computer science as the domain where these skills are developed limits the points of engagement for both students and teachers. As a result, it weeds out both students and teachers whose primary interests (at present) lay outside of computer science.
Widespread development of computational thinking (CT) skills will require a different approach— one that can leverage the interests and passions of both students and teachers in domains outside of computer science.
Computational Thinking Interviews
Through a grant from Northwestern Mutual, we interviewed a total of 11 teachers involved with either MPS’s efforts to introduce Project GUTS, SHARP Literacy’s Design Through Code (DTC) program, or TEALS. Recognizing that computational thinking is a perspective new to most teachers and they would benefit from outside support, we also conducted interviews with 10 mentors from the FIRST Robotics and TEALS programs. Each of these programs provides an opportunity for students to develop computational thinking skills. Apart from TEALS, all are in domains and classes outside of computer science.
We use the lens of Jobs to Be Done to understand how teachers and industry mentors make decisions about where and how to invest their time and energy. Adoption of a useful and effective practice will move no faster than the practice solves a real problem for teachers in the context within which teachers operate. Failure to understand the context within which a teacher might employ a practice and how this practice fits given their other priorities will, at best, slow adoption. At worst, it will lead to active resistance. For mentors, if the chance to guide students in work that can build computational thinking skills does not align with their own goals, pressures, and schedule, they won’t do it.
Findings & Recommendations
“I felt it was my responsibility as aneducator to at least learn and bring coding to them”
For teachers, the primary factors which led them to participate in one of the three programs noted above are:
Support from their school or district administration
A desire to help their students develop coding skills
For Project GUTS teachers, a recognition that the tools and curriculum provided a much richer way for their students to explore topics that involve dynamic systems
A lower cost to deliver the experience for students
Curriculum that fits within their schedule
Factors holding them back from doing more with the programs are a lack of experience with coding, modeling dynamic systems (Project GUTs), or design thinking (DTC).
“I want to help kids do cool, hard things.”
The mentors we interviewed are motivated by a desire to help students build skills–not just in coding, but an ability to work with a team– and to see them succeed in a challenging project. Their willingness to participate is tempered by the obligations they feel towards their colleagues at work– they want to know that the time they spend as volunteers at worst does not impact their team, and at best, makes them a better team member.
Given what we heard over the course of these interviews, we see a number of opportunities for interventions which could support teachers who want to expose their students to computational thinking in general and speed the adoption of Project GUTS in particular.
Engage students in coding as a way to explore or solve problems
“…the interactions of students, the sharing of ideas, are almost more adult.”
Project GUTS provides an opportunity to expose students to coding in ways that allow them to explore ideas and problems in science. The tools provide a way for students to test ideas and lets their curiosity around the topic or problem at hand drive their desire to master the coding required to do so. This approach offers both teachers and students many more possible points of engagement than would a program focused on simply learning how to code.
Leverage teachers’ enthusiasm for Project GUTS
We were surprised by the enthusiasm teachers showed for Project GUTS. Teachers involved with the program recognize its value, can see opportunities where it can be used effectively, and are excited enough by the possibilities that they look to get colleagues involved.
Support teachers who want to do more with Project GUTS
The teachers we spoke with all had specific ideas for the topics they’d like to explore with Project GUTS. Several mentioned a desire to collaborate with colleagues at their own school or to connect with colleagues at other schools working on the same topics. Beyond having additional training or ad hoc support from district specialists, the current set of Project GUTS teachers could benefit from:
a program to develop and test models and integrate into curriculum;
a network of local practitioners with regular opportunities to meet in person;
training opportunities for their
colleagues.
Create a mentor pool for Project GUTS teachers
Teachers were not completely confident in their ability to make full use of the tools without additional support. An outside mentor who can bring domain expertise around the systems to be modeled and some sense of how best to do so would provide welcome help.
The time commitment here need not be anywhere near as intensive as that required by TEALS. Having some availability to exchange ideas with a teacher and visit a class a few times per semester when students are working through models would be a valued addition to the support currently provided by colleagues and curriculum specialists within MPS.
Teachers value on-going relationships with mentors and want the same for their students. Having a mentor assigned to a teacher for the duration of a school year is preferable to a pool of volunteers where any one of whom might drop in on an ad-hoc basis. This partnership would be further enhanced if teachers have a chance to work with mentors who interests are strongly aligned with their own.
Demonstrate that the employer values mentors’ work with students
Mentors want to know that the time they spend with students is valued by their employer and that it does not distract from the work their team needs to complete. While mentors recognized that work with K-12 students can provide an opportunity to develop skills they can leverage in the workplace, few of those we spoke with indicated this was recognized by their employer.
Overt signals from the employer that mentorship work is valued as a professional development opportunity by the firm will leave mentors more willing to participate. As examples, a firm might:
Provide employer sponsored opportunities for mentors to learn how to effectively engage with students– this would both demonstrate an employer’s commitment to the effort and help mentors be more effective in the classroom
Incorporate meaningful student mentorship as a recognized track in building leadership and communication skills for employees
Provide opportunities for mentors’ students/teachers to share their work with co-workers. This could come through on-site presentations, newsletter articles, or by encouraging attendance at off-site presentations.
Facilitate deep connections between mentors and the classroom
The desire of teachers for support they can count on, and that of mentors to see growth are more easily satisfied when mentors have an ongoing role with the class or classes they support. Mentors who have built good relationships with the students they work with are an asset to the teacher and allow the teacher to play a higher value role within the classroom.
More information
Want to know explore our findings in greater detail? Our full report detailed report is available here. If you’re interested in leveraging what we’ve found, or helping Milwaukee move forward with any of our recommendations, let us know.
Family/date night math came to the NEWaukee Night Market last night. Math educators Mary Langmyer and David Temple created opportunities for attendees to solve number puzzles, play with shapes, build nets with Magnatiles, use “shape finders” and participate in our first “street survey”. It was a chance to engage with math (and mathematicians) in playful and creative ways as well as chance to meet others who stopped by for positive math experiences! All in all, a night of great (and humorous) conversations and learning for everyone!
Can you identify dots that correspond to the following two statements? 1) “My parents dragged me down here for a hamburger, which I didn’t really want.” 2) “We were walking back to our hotel and just stumbled into this.”
Following on from discussions with COA staff earlier in the summer, Collab-Labist Mary Langmyer set up a number of math activities for COA’s family picnic. Children had fun with the chance to play number games, count collections, create number sentences, build with blocks, make patterns and design attribute trains…and play with bubbles! It was a great day to sit down and relax with new friends… while using one’s imagination to engage with math!
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