Don't Ever Give Up

My personal STEMS^2 research project is straight ruining me.  It is a very time consuming project that eats up all of my free time.  If I am not working I am doing research for my plan b paper or revising research tools such as survey forms, focus group questions, and or consent forms.  I feel like David after the dentist. 

And after I stop crying I realize oh yeah I have no one to blame but myself for wanting to get my masters through a one year intense program.  So when I only sleep for four hours and need to work for 10 hours then come home to do homework I tell myself

I always feel like I am behind on my project that I can never be in a position where I feel comfortable.  However, I just turned in my first draft of my plan b so a good chunk got taken care of.  I do know that it will go under revisions though. 

The next big thing on my list that I want to tackle is submitting my IRB application.  I am hoping to turn that in this week so that I can get approval for my research project by March 21, 2016.  March 21 to March 23 is the dates for my camp where I will be implementing my STEMS^2 unit.  The camp will last for the majority of the day from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.  Students will also take a field trip to bishop museum which should be pretty cool with all the Lele o Na Manu: Hawaiian Forest Birds, 'ahu 'ula and mahiole of Kalani opu'u, and Sweet: A Tasty Journey.  You can check out the upcoming exhibits for yourself here: http://www.bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/upcoming.html 
You will be glad you did =)

The camp date is quickly approaching, but luckily I finished all the training units early and now that the first draft of my plan b is complete it shouldn’t be too hard to fill out the application.  I do need to finalize the consent, surveys, and focus group questions, but I am on my second draft now.

I like to look ahead and have a plan in mind so I was happy to see that our next readings will be on data and analysis.  I started looking up other resources online on techniques people use to analyze their data.  I am hoping that my math back ground will help make analyzing the data a little easier for me.  But just in case it isn’t, I am prepared to continue to tell myself that I can do this and 

                                                      

Blog 2

Arriving at my current research question was a very stressful process for me.  I suppose to fully understand how I arrived at my current research question some time traveling is in order. 

 

 

 

 

 

The year is now 2006 and I got my first job in the math field as a tutor at Leeward Community College Math Lab.  As soon as I began as a math tutor I would hear students say things along the lines of, “I hate math,” or “math is my worst subject.”  I even once heard, “Me and math are not friends.” Every time I heard someone say one (or all) of these statements I made it a goal of mines to change their perspective of math.  However, I didn’t really have a way of doing this besides just working with them through problems in a traditional ("drill and kill") method.

Now back to the future

 

 

 

Originally my question was how can we take a negative space like math and begin to turn it in to a positive space?  This was too general and after the readings from this week and last week I can say not a very good question for my project.  I tried to come up with other (better) questions; What affect does STEMS^2 lessons have on students attitudes on mathematics?; how is a student’s perception of math transformed by math events; what impact does place based education have on students from Ewa Beach, HI?  One big problem with these questions is that the questions and data I want to collect align too much with my job.  I work for a research project that is investigating how culturally relevant math activities can help students learn math as well as change their attitudes towards mathematics. 

I needed a research question that would allow me to have a study within a study.  I knew I wanted a question that would help enrich and add to the research already being done with my job.  After much frustration and talking with my advisor I came to two possible research question; How do students (middle to high school) attitudes towards math affect their parent’s attitudes towards math? Or how is a parent’s perspective of math affected when their child experiences a positive math experience?  I know I need to choose one of the questions, but I am not quite sure yet which question to stick with.  I feel both questions are just slightly different from each other.

Lastly, finding literature that supports my research question is becoming increasingly frustrating.  At the moment there seems to be no research done on the influence student’s attitudes can have on their parent’s attitudes.  However, I could find articles on parents passing their negative math attitudes on to their children and articles on how friends and colleagues attitudes can affect your own.

My research project has changed course over the last two weeks.  At first my project was attempting to answer a question I had long ago when I first began working in the math field.  As a math tutor I always heard one quintessential question and comment of when am I ever going to use this?  And I hate math; math is my worst subject.  When I heard this as a tutor I made it a practical goal of mines to change the student’s outlook on math, to make it a subject that they can at least tolerate and not hate. 

I had a hard time figuring out what to do with my paper and felt that my qualitative research was at a standstill.  I felt that I couldn’t further my research because all my research questions were too general.  I didn’t have a clear path to take my research because I didn’t have a particular question.  Thus, the reading on research questions was a huge help.  It helped me go from questions like

—  How can we take a negative space like math and begin to turn it in to a positive space?

—  What affect does STEMS^2 lessons have on students attitudes on mathematics?

—  How is a student’s perception of math transformed by math events?

—  What impact does place based education have on students from Ewa Beach, HI?

These questions not only were too general, but conflicted with my job since I work for a research project (called Ka Pilina) attempting to answer very similar questions.  Another main concern has been, what do I bring to the table? How does my research project enrich and expand the realm of education (and Ka Pilina)?  After hours and days (and hair loss!) my advisor helped me come up with a better (work in progress) question:  What affect does STEMS^2 lessons have on parent's perceptions of mathematics of students attending Ewa Beach middle to high schools?

What I really like about this question is it helps to capture something that doesn’t get seen within the scope of the current data of Ka Pilina.  Nowhere in the project do we report on feedback from students’ parents.  However, my perception of parent’s reaction to Ka Pilina is positive.  Parents come to talk to me about their child’s grades improving or their perception of their child’s attitude towards an event like math camp. Another aspect that I like about the current question is I feel the question is now more of an instrumentalist question that will reflect the limitations of my research, and at the same time it is enriching the education field (and my project, yay!)

With this new research question I plan to have focus on the topic of affects I have on parent’s perceptions.  I currently will collect data using a survey that contains qualitative and quantitative questions.  However, I have yet to finish the first draft of this instrument.

Lastly, I would like to blog about my overall state of being.  I have gone from the famous last words of “eh how bad could it be?” to… I am completely freaking out!

T_T

Community Day!

This past Tuesday there was an event at Windward Community College called Ka Pilina Community Day.  The event took place in the evening from 6:00pm-7:30pm and consisted of booths put on by Ka Pilina and partners from the community.  All booths were STEM related and tried to focus on showing that math is in everything.  Participants at the event collected stamps on a stamp card by participating at different booths.  At the end of the night people turned in the stamps for prizes and raffle tickets.  We raffled off gift cards and a grand prize of a Dell Venue 8 tablet.  There was also pizza and water for people to enjoy.  The event was free and open to the Kamakau Community. 

I was very blessed and thankful that a few STEM^2-ers came out to support this event.  Big Mahalo to Waynele Yu, Hayden Atkins, and Ka’ai McAfee- Torco.  This event wouldn’t have been as amazing as it was without them.  We had many different activities for people to engage in:  Watersheds, conservation, aquaponics with alternative power sources, healthy hearts, fractions with minions, Java programming. 

When the event first started I was a little bummed because the turnout was so small, but everyone else seemed so excited.  Then I realized it is all about perspective.  The whole half glass full idea.  It was small but that just meant we could be more attentive to the students that were there and give them a more individualized activity.  We could let students launch more water balloons then they were supposed to at their math mentor, which students were definitely happy about.  Then about 30 minutes into the event more people started showing up, so all my disappointment in the beginning was unnecessary. All in all it was a great event and a lot of fun for everyone.   To see all the pictures from this event and or to see pictures from other previous community days you can follow this link: Past Ka Pilina Community Days.  

A Strong STEMS^2 Unit

A strong STEMS^2 unit could have many different forms, but there should be a general outline.  The first big step would be to plan our goals and objectives.  It would be difficult to accomplish something if you don’t know what it is you want to accomplish.  So a strong STEMS^2 unit should have clearly written outcomes. 

Once you have that the rest of the unit should have certain qualities.   A unit should have culturally responsive concepts, which includes math problems/activities that involve ethnic components, local Hawai’i context, or daily life materials.  Since I still believe in “one shoe size doesn’t fit all,” STEMS^2 can benefit greatly from incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) concepts.  For a unit this means incorporating three aspects, and they are as follows:

1.      Multiple means of representation- Using multiple tools to convey a lesson, topic, or vocabulary.

2.      Multiple means of expression- Having students demonstrate their knowledge in multiple ways.

3.      Multiple means of engagement- Giving students options to engage in the lesson or activity that stimulates them.

In our day and age it could also help greatly for students to be able to include technology in any, or all, of the three previously stated UDL concepts. 

Lastly for qualities, I feel the STEMS^2 units should allow for flexible grouping.  Some parts of the unit should allow for students to work in groups or as individuals.  In any lesson it is also important to have additional resources/tools for students that need extra help or more of a challenge.  This should also extend to the student’s homework and test as well.  These last few qualities keep in mind the students who may need more help in understanding certain concepts. 

Experiences can help tremendously in making things memorable. The experience doesn’t need to be something everyone is familiar with.  It really depends on what your goals and objectives are.  If your goal is to expose students to different careers and how those careers use math then students will be engaging in possibly new experiences depending on the career they are being introduced to.  However, you could have students and teachers engage in experiences that are familiar, but show something different and or in depth about it.  For instance, some of my students are into skate boarding so when they had to learn about quadratic equations I used skateboarding as an example.  I couldn’t get them to use actual skateboards, but tech decks were good substitutes.  In any case the experience should be meaningful to the students. 

Time is also something that will depend on your goals and objectives.  Some goals and objectives can be accomplished in a fairly short amount of time where others will take longer.  For instance, if your objective is just to create a way to make students more comfortable with each other a good community building exercise will suffice to complete your goal, and community building activities can take up only 10 minutes.  On the other hand, if you wish to change a person’s attitude toward mathematics that could take a substantial amount of time more.  If I had to put a time limit on learning experiences I would say one week per math concept.

The "Ah-Ha" Moment

Over the last month I have been going to different schools and doing different activities with students in grades ranging from 7^th – 12^th grade.  I have ran 3 different activities during this time and had the pleasure of experiencing the “Ah-Ha” moment with students.  The three different activities were “Tower Building”, “1=2!?”, and “Predict a Pair.”

The first activity tower building is the same activity that I did in my first summer course in my STEMS^2 master’s program.  The activity consists of building a free standing structure made only of tape and straws (in my summer course we did uncooked spaghetti noodles and marshmallows).  All the kids have a blast doing this activity.  After they build their towers I give them a minute to look at everyone else's towers including their own and ask students to think about what they thought about the activity, what worked well, what was a challenge, what did they notice about the tower or materials.  I guide the discussion a little when then say things like, "The straws were colorful," or "The straws had the bendy part,"  I ask them did those things help or hinder you.  The answer we came to was that it all depends.  A few students said, "The colorful straws made their towers prettier," most students said, "The color straws didn't help or hinder their building."  So now what about the bendy part of the straw?  Some students said the bendy parts in the straw made their tower weak at those points.  Other students said it helped because they used the bendy parts to make angles to construct the tower or they could extend the bendy part of the straw to make the tower just a little taller.
Now I say, "So it's pretty important to recognize what materials were given to you and how they can be used?" Of course this question is a leading question, but nonetheless they all say yes. This is where I begin to drop the math bomb.  I tell them, "Just like when you do math it is important to recognize what is given.  You need to look at a problem and see what are the givens and how you can use the givens to solve a problem.  This also applies to life, in life when you have a problem it is important to look at what you have, what resources are available to you, and use those givens to solve your problems."  The students weren't expecting this activity to relate to math and then have math relate directly to life.  I could see in their faces that I had their attention.
One of the best moments for this activity came when we talked about how every team used some sort of shape in their structure.  I asked, "What shape is the strongest?"  In every class a hand full of students knew it was a triangle.  So I ask them if triangles are the strongest shape why do we build houses and buildings with squares and rectangles?  Many students are unsure, one said maybe its because using rectangles give you more space.  Students, including myself, starting thinking like yeah that's a good point.  I tell them I thought about another point.  I asked what would happen if I drew a diagonal line from one corner of a rectangle to the other?  I used the white board as my rectangle and drew a diagonal line.  A kid blurts out before I even finish drawing the diagonal, "It makes TWO triangles!"  I said, "Yeah it does! Maybe it is for these 2 reasons we mentioned that we build houses with rectangles instead of a triangle even though a triangle is a stronger shape.  I am not sure, but its interesting and worth thinking about."   Leaving that class with the little spark of interest and wondering made all the work leading up to that point worth it.
1=2!? is a brain teaser where you lead the reader to believe that you have proven 1=2.  The Brain Teaser is below.

So I go through all the steps with the students to make sure they see how the whole processes takes place.  I ask them so does "1=2?"  They are usually baffled at this point and I say, "Well the answer is obviously no right?  Would it be equal if I gave you one dollar and expect you to give me two?"  Long story short. I show them that in step 8 we did something not allowed which is we divided by zero since in step one we said a^2=ab.  I point out that this is why we say a number divided by zero is undefined we get fallacies.  When we divide by zero we can get weird things like proof that 1=2.  All the students went "oooohhhhh!"
The last activity predict a pair is a magic card trick where you predict the value of two playing cards (not the suit) that students pick at random from a standard deck of 52 playing cards.  How it works is you let a student pick one card from the deck.  Then the student multiplies that cards value (picture cards are worth 10 and aces are 1) by 2, then add 5, then multiply by 5.  Next the student picks another card from the deck at random and adds the second cards value to the total the student got from the previous steps.  The student then gives me the grand total.  And I "magically" predict and tell him/her the value of both cards and which card he/she pulled first and which he/she pulled second.  When I did this with a student during a tutoring session I looked at him when I told him his cards he said I was right, but just kept looking at his cards.  I thought, "oh man he's totally not impressed and or he thinks its completely lame."  Then a few seconds later he looks up at me and goes, "OK how'd you do that?," with a big grin on his face.  I smiled back and said, "Your job is to figure out how I did it."  He goes, "oh man come on just tell me."  I respond, "Nope you go home work on it and next week you show me what you worked on and then I'll tell you how I did it."  He replied, "Deal!" then shook my hand and left.

In all of these instances I feel I had the great opportunity to affect the lens in which students view  the sense of place as it pertains to their math class.  I got to generate genuine interest and help develop an understanding of why we say or do certain things in math,  It made me happy to think that I had some hand in changing a very negative space to a positive place, even if it was just for a little while.  This in turn made me realize that maybe we also need to be aware that we cannot affect ones sense of place without inadvertently effecting our own.  If I ran all these lessons and was met with disappointment I would be worried about the next time I ran a lesson with the students.  Lately my lens for math and my sense of place in the math world has been indifferent at best.  However, these students have positively affected my sense of place.  At the end of this experiences I feel the math classroom became a positive ideological and political space.  We generated interesting conversations where people expressed idea's and debated freely with no anxiety of being wrong.  A place where everyone can feel respected for their opinion.  They used their physical sense to help make sense of problems.  Its hard to describe the feeling or to accurately describe what took place, but being aware of sense of place and the affect we have on others as well as others has on ours makes teaching and learning more meaningful and enriching.  

Importance of sense of place and recognizing multiple sense of place

      Sense of place is important because it can build a pathway towards self-motivation for learning.  It is no mystery that motivation is a good tool for learning.  If you can motivate students to take charge of their own learning they will go further then we can imagine.  I hate talking about my judo career but I learned so much from judo.  I am able to apply so many aspects of judo into other areas of my life.  I feel a big part of my “success” in my judo career has a lot to do with my motivation.  When I first started I was uncoordinated and un-athletic. I was told by the veteran players on the team that I had no natural talent at all.  Certain events happened in the span of one month in the beginning of my judo training and it sparked a motivation in me that I couldn’t control.  I trained hard and dedicated myself to my training to the point where my parents had to tell me, “You know Jerrik, there is more to life than training and winning.”  My sensei’s poured knowledge on me and I couldn’t wait to gain more, to learn more.  Being able to apply what you learn in one subject (in this instance, for me judo) and applying it to other real world scenarios and subjects should be the aim of teaching.  I apply things I learned in judo like perseverance, the ability to analyze situations, and strategy to my everyday life.  What if we could instill this type of motivation into students?  Ok, maybe not to the extreme that I took it, but maybe close to it.  How could we achieve instilling this motivation?  I believe the answer is in building students sense of place through place based education.

      For me, at a particular time in my life, the judo mat was my strongest sense of place.  It’s where I felt I belonged and where I rooted my learning.  To qualify to compete in high school tournaments you had to submit grade checks weekly that had passing grades marked on them by your teacher from each class.  I passed all my classes and found motivation to study through my desire to compete.  A sense of place that leads to a motivating desire to learn could, and should, leak into other areas of students’ lives.

      There will most likely be multiple senses of place for any given space and moment, by our own (or others) different understandings or perceptions of a place based on different dimensions of the place and time.  It would be difficult to find a place that incorporates only one of Gruenewald’s five dimensions of place.  You would be particularly hard pressed to not find all five of Gruenewald’s dimensions of place in a classroom.  The different dimensions and multiple sense of place are there whether we choose to acknowledge them or not.  Students bring so many different dynamics into the classroom. When students walk into a room they come with their own views, ideas, dreams, culture, social and home life.  The simple act of introducing a new student affects everyone’s sense of place of a place.  The new student definitely has a different sense of place from the other students.  The multiple sense of place is evident in Tara’s story of students investigating their city and air pollution.  The student’s perceptual, sociological, ideological, political, and ecological sense of place radically changes from one moment to the next.  Everyone in that story had a different sense of place at a given moment.  For the students it was home in every sense of the word and what parts in the city are of importance and to their home view were different.  Teachers meant well and hand nothing but good intentions in trying to take a serious health concern and use it as a teaching space, which was their sense of place.  I guess to me the situation went like: Teachers came to the students house and said, wow this is a great house let’s make it better together, and students heard wow this is a great house, but your house has flaws.

      The aspect of multiple sense of place I am beginning to find most interesting and also troublesome for teaching.  Is the aspect that everyone has a different sense of place and hence there are multiple senses of place at any given time and that sense of place is in a constant state of change.  Every event, whether big or tiny, shapes and molds a sense of place for each individual.  Now as a teacher we need to constantly be aware of the changes and be flexible to adapt our teaching and lessons to continually be in tuned with the changes, especially with incoming classes.  What worked for one instance or for one class may not work for the next.  If we begin to go off on a tangent and let one sense of place take precedence and overshadow the multitude of senses of place we will then begin to negatively affect the space of learning.  What I perceive as important or interesting in a space may not be important or interesting to students due to the fact that there is multiple sense of place for a single space.