MATH ATTACK: TEACHERS ADD FUN TO THE FORMULA

A new approach to teaching mathematics attempts to generate excitement for an often dreaded subject by adding fun to the formula.

Gone, for the most part, are days of drill and practice and pages of arithmetic problems to calculate.

Teachers are using hands-on activities called manipulatives, cooperative learning, competition and games all designed to get students thinking logically about numbers. They hope to make better mathematicians in the process.

This new approach to mathematics stems from a national outcry over poor student performance in the subject. In 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics developed the "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics." This publication became the reference source for math teachers hoping to help their students excel.

"It's our bible," said Kathy Berkbigler, math teacher at L.J. Schultz.

Berkbigler and Myrnita Grantham, both math teachers at Schultz, attended a workshop last summer called "Math Attack," a specific program to help teachers break away from more traditional ways of teaching math.

Being able to do mathematical computations or to memorize formulas is not enough.

Grantham said, "We want students to be able to take a problem situation and become a problem solver."

So math teachers across the nation, from kindergarten through college, are revamping their approach.

For example, select seventh- and eighth-grade students from St. Vincent de Paul Grade School may participate on a math team.

The students, who must maintain a B+ or higher grade in their math classes to remain on the team, meet during study hour to hone their problem-solving skills.

With calculators and pencils in hand, the students go through mathematical calisthenics each morning.

Student Kyle Shaffar said he enjoys the mental workout each morning. "We don't get grades, so we can goof off."

What Shaffar calls goofing off, his teacher Virginia Sander calls experimenting and taking a chance with new approaches to solving problems. If he is wrong, it doesn't reflect in his grade.

Student Sean Hagan said, "There is no pressure." Tom Berkbigler said, "Actually, it's kind of fun."

Derek Fenwick said, "We split up the problems. Then we compare our answers. If one person gets one answer and someone else gets another. We have to figure out if one person did it the wrong way."

Shaffar said, "There is Mrs. Sander's way and then there is the easy way," evoking a round of laughter from his classmates.

Sander doesn't mind the light-hearted atmosphere of this group. And she admits many times there is more than one way to solve a problem. The team competes against others in the region and state.

Area schools have included organized mathematics competitions in their teaching strategies. In the last couple years, local schools have done very well on the local level.

Recently five local students placed at a Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics contest: Cabell Gathman, fourth grade, Cape Girardeau; Jonathan Anderson, fifth grade, Cape Girardeau; Kristopher Kueker, fifth grade, Perryville; Jeremy Bratton, eighth grade, Cape Girardeau, and Amy Hemmann, eighth grade, Apple Creek.

Grantham said, "Competitions require a lot of higher order thinking skills. I find the material above the seventh and eighth-grade level. It's amazing to see these kids take the knowledge they have and stretch it out."

Because of the competitions, Grantham said, "We are teaching more mental math. They start using their minds."

Berkbigler said, "We are trying to open doors, make kids more aware of "number sense."

"Kids love to compete," said Debbie Griffith, math teacher for grades six, seven and eight at St. Mary's School. "It's a wonderful motivational tool. It also gives the really bright students a goal to work toward."

Students compete in organized contests, but they also compete in the classroom.

Berkbigler and Grantham use a game called "Race to the Top" in their classes. Students begin with seven numbers at the bottom of a triangle and add the numbers together up to the top. The student who reaches the top first, wins.

"Each race takes just a few minutes," Berkbigler said. So they often do several.

Each race requires 21 addition problems. The result is that students would do 84 problems during four games. "Do you know what reaction we would get if we assigned 84 addition problems?," Berkbigler said.

Often the competitions, both in the classroom and at district and state levels, are organized so students participate in groups or teams.

Grantham explained that these using groups, also called cooperative learning, works.

"Students get a problem, talk it over with others and decide on an answer. It's really peer tutoring. One student understands and then explains it to another student," Grantham said. "When a student is able to teach a concept, he understands it even more. By working in groups, they also learn there is not just one solution."

At St. Mary's Debbie Griffith said, "It's very rewarding to walk around my classroom and hear these kids discussing math, talking about how they are going to solve a problem. If they had to sit and listen to me explain, about 80 percent of them would not be listening.

"They depend on each other, help each other and race to me with the answers with such enthusiasm."

The games and competition are examples of manipulatives, which basically are hands-on activities ranging from dice, card games, rulers and calculators.

Manipulatives are used to help teachers present information so students more easily understand.

At St. Mary's, Griffith said, "When I teach multiplication of fractions I talk about pizza. If I have two pizzas and ate an eighth of one, how much pizza would be left. Students can visualize those pizzas in their heads and that makes it easier for them to learn. Math tends to be abstract, but students need to learn in a concrete way."

"Math is a lot more fun for students. It's not nearly the dreaded subject it used to be. Students don't have a page of 55 problems they have to do. It's not the drudgery that it used to be," said Joan Haring, fifth-grade teacher at St. Mary's School, who has taught for 25 years.

She said this `new' math is harder in some ways for teachers, but many welcome the change.

"Years ago, you assigned pages of math problems and walked around the class to make sure everyone was working. Now you are 100 percent involved 100 percent of the time, but it's more fun."

Monica Macke, fourth-grade teacher at St. Mary's, said, "Something is working right. Student anticipation is good and the anxiety is gone.

"I think we're going to see a change. It's coming. Kids feel a lot less frustration with math, so they have got to feel better about it," Macke said.

Many teachers across the city said they have completed more chapters in their textbooks this year than ever before.

As part of their Math Attack approach this year, the two Schultz teachers surveyed their students this spring.

"A large portion of the students said for the first time I had to think, but it was fun," Grantham said. "Fun was used repeatedly."

Grantham said, "It doesn't look a lot like the math you may be used to. Remember story problems? You probably hated them.

"These students get so many word problems, they don't hate them anymore. But we try to teach them it's alright not to know how to start."

Grantham, who is completing 25 years of teaching, said she was inspired to try this `new' math approach because she wants her students to do well all of them.

"Even though we do the very best we can, we still have failures," she said. " We're still looking for ways to help these kids be successful."