Skip to content

SFU professor makes math fun in a Coquitlam school

A very unusual math class was in progress last week. For one it was noisy as Alderson elementary Grade 4 and 5 students built a strange object from sticks and elastics.

A very unusual math class was in progress last week. For one it was noisy as Alderson elementary Grade 4 and 5 students built a strange object from sticks and elastics.

The children were learning how to build a tensegrity, a structure in which sticks are held together - and apart- by tension created by the elastics.

What the students didn't know is that they were doing math and the tensegrity they were making is an architectural concept which can also be explained using a complicated mathematical equation.

They were just having fun, and that was the whole idea, according to Veselin Jungic, an SFU mathematics adjunct professor.

He has developed the program called Math Catcher: Mathematics through Aboriginal Storytelling which uses storytelling, pictures, playing with models, and hands on projects to encourage young people to enjoy math.

"The message we are sending is that mathematics is everywhere around them," Jungic explained.

Although the program is appropriate for all students in K to 12, Jungic is particularly interested in reaching out to aboriginal students and so he incorporates First Nations imagery into the program and brings aboriginal university students into the classroom to be role models.

MATH AVERSION

He said the aversion to math starts early and the only way to get over math stigma is to get to kids early. Showing them math applies to everyday life and getting them to do a hands-on project can dispel myths that math is boring and abstract, and could encourage them to take higher-level math when they are older.

"It seems that one of the issues is to start early to promote math with young people. I'm hoping the first step will create positive math experiences that will carry on into the future."

Thom Borlé, the Alderson teacher who welcomed Jungic into his class, believes strongly in the methodology, noting that even struggling students were engaged.

"To bring something like this into the classroom, that is freely given, is amazing," Borlé said.

In addition to building the tensegrity, the students discussed ways math is incorporated in art and in making useful objects. For example, they looked at photos of Stó:l? women weaving baskets and discussed pattern and symmetry.

Jungic, who works with aboriginal students in SFU's bridge programs, said he got the idea of developing the program to support aboriginal students after meeting many who were smart in other areas of their studies, but struggled in math. He developed Math Catcher two years ago and in that time 1,600 students around B.C. have taken the program.

"The problem with math," he said, "is one of attitude. People think it's OK to be bad at math. But the world is so complicated and so much of it requires math," he said, adding that if at least one student learns to appreciate the subject through his teaching then he has accomplished his goal.

dstrandberg@tricitynews.com