dynamics
movement and making games engages students in the content but also creates the feeling of searching, finding, and achieving.
This is part of the 'discovery learning' I have talked about in other threads. Students will remember what they discovered so much better than what they were told. The book Mathematician's Lament talks about the fact that mathematics is hated, dreaded and avoided by most people because they learning it by rote: math tables and theorems, and were never given the opportunity to discover mathematics and see the beauty of it. I have two very intelligent grown daughters who both would tell you that they got great math grades in high-school because they were very good at plugging the numbers into the formulas, not that they understood math. When I was studying elementary education I brought home a base 10 block set. On seeing me work with them, one of the girls commented, “Oh, my gosh, if I had had that when I learned math, I’d understand numbers.
Great idea & great second reason for incorporating movement into the classroom. I like the idea of having students get the feeling of searching, finding and achieving.
Ryan
