Math Program Increases Student Test Scores!

OVERVIEW
Math Connections is a program which brings together the collaborative talents of museum educators and the resources of The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and The Western Reserve Historical Society under the leadership of University Circle Interactive Cleveland. Its content focuses on assisting teachers and students to address the learner outcomes in key 6th and 7th grade math content standards and concepts. The program has also been effective for upper-elementary gifted students and middle school students who need remedial support. It consists of professional development and lesson orientation with teachers and eight (8) videoconferences with students.

Math Content Standards for Grades 6-7

LEARNER OUTCOMES
Students from Cleveland School of the Arts demonstrated a significant increase in test scores when compared to their non-participant counterparts after participation in this program. 45% of the 68 participants passed the state’s proficiency exam in math as compared to a 14% passage rate of non-participants.

Project partners attribute the success of Math Connections to:

• active participation and engagement of teachers in the process
• a focus on learning outcomes and alignment with national content standards/benchmarks and state achievement tests
• introduction of real world applications
• using problem solving approaches and project-based interdisciplinary content
• in-service workshops for participating teachers

For regional schools, an added benefit includes a culminating experience on-site at The Western Reserve Historical Society for inquiry-driven, hands-on math activities related to collections and a visit to The Cleveland Museum of Art or the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

TEACHER TRAINING
Math Connections provides teachers with inquiry-based tools to teach math and improve student learning. In-service workshops orient teachers to the lessons and clarify their responsibilities as UCIC classroom partners in the teaching and learning process. All classes are emailed or sent classroom supplies for all the lessons and are encouraged to dialog with museum educators if they have questions as they work through these lessons.

LESSON DESCRIPTIONS
The Cleveland Museum of Art:
Chuck Close – Up Close: A Grid Self-Portrait Project – measurement and proportion skills

Summary
Students are introduced to the art of Chuck Close and "Paul III" from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Through a series of four lessons, students learn and apply math concepts and measuring skills used by the artist in his grid method of transferring a photographic image to canvas. The students learn about the contemporary artist Chuck Close, some of the challenges he has faced as an artist and how he has devised a mathematical methodology to continue to paint following a medical condition that changed his life by being confined to a wheelchair.

Lesson Description The end result of the lesson is that each student will enlarge their own digital self-portrait image by 50%. The math concepts involved use formulas which integrate fractions, percentages, and measurement skills.

Students work through their designs by using scale drawings as they learn about area, perimeter, and volume.

The Western Reserve Historical Society
Get Me to The Game On Time – figuring time/distance

Summary
Students must use map and math skills to help Timeslider Chad, a distinguished gentleman who finds himself transported to 2007, find his way to Jacobs Field in his new 1914 Model T Ford so he can see the Cleveland Indians play baseball. Along the way Chad shares some Cleveland baseball history about League Park and the Cleveland Naps. This lesson integrates scale, history, mapping skills and problem-solving in an engaging 2 part connection.

Lesson Description:
Connection #1: Students use maps, paper strips, rulers and the equation distance/speed = time to navigate from their school to the historic baseball stadium, League Park.

In their classes in small groups, students use the same methods to navigate routes to Canal Park and determine how long it will take Chad to get to his game on time.

Students are captivated as their busy hands map out their routes to League Park.

Connection #2: As students present their results to Chad, they encounter some mishaps during their journeys, causing them to refigure their answers.

Cleveland Botanical Garden
Gardening "Lasagna Style" – Determining Dimensional Space/Building Scale Models/Ratio and Percent

Summary
In the past, students tackled a real-life problem that faced the horticulturists and educators at the Cleveland Botanical Garden by helping them to design and arrange plants in a storage greenhouse as the horticulturists designed a permanent GLASSHOUSE with 2 biomes. This year, this lesson has been updated to reflect how to design community gardens.

Summary
In this problem, students build a virtual garden from the ground up. They calculate area and volume and build a scale model of their lasagna garden. Students apply fractions and percentages as they "plant" their virtual gardens.

Lesson Description
Connection #1: Students are introduced to the concept of lasagna gardening. Pictures of actual lasagna gardens and the building process are shown to help students better understand the problem. Students can work with a partner or in small teams to create a model of a 4’ by 8’ garden. In the classroom, students calculate the materials needed to construct their garden, create pie charts, and build a 3-D version of their model. To finish their model, they convert fractions into percents and calculate the number of plants to put in their garden. Students finish the lesson by calculating potential profits generated from the crops grown in their virtual lasagna garden.

Connection #2: Garden staff shows students pictures of the high school students that are part of their Green Corps working in Cleveland’s urban gardens and at the local farmers’ market. Students present their garden models and profit summary to Cleveland Botanical Garden staff, addressing the process used and challenges they faced.

TEACHER TESTIMONIALS
"I think it is neat to see what the kids have learned in class about scales and ratios applied to a real situation. It is exciting to see them engaged."
- Jeff Basone, 7th grade math teacher, Green Middle School (OH)

"The students learned a lot about working in a cooperative setting. They developed a sense of responsibility for this project and it made the program more meaningful to them. I would recommend Math Connections to others because it allowed our class to be focused on REAL tasks. My students will remember participating in this program"
- Holly Reed, 6th grade math teacher, Schrop Middle School (OH)

"These lessons were challenging and GOOD!. They met standards and benchmarks. The teachers materials were great for all lessons and arrived in a timely manner."
- Andrea Hall, 6th – 8th Math/Algebra I, Clarendon CISD (TX)

EVALUATION
Math Connections provides pre-post assessments for each lesson. In addition, this project has been evaluated by the Research Center for Educational Technology at Kent State University.
Learn more here.