Hi Erin,

It's great to see the phenomenal work you're doing in Mathematical Modeling with teachers around the country. Your approach is so impactful.  How do you encourage teachers and participants to share what they know with others within your project and beyond?  I'm so glad to have learned more about your project.  I'm greatly inspired by it! 

Hi,

This is very exciting work, bringing together important mathematics and practices with intentional uses of culture and context.  In our work with elementary teachers, we find that most teachers don't know what "mathematical modeling" means. What are you learning about what teachers need to learn about what modeling is, and what are you learning from your collaborating teachers about key aspects of how they support students during these investigations?

Great video! In my context, I am thinking about how to support prospective elementary teachers with modeling that connects to cultural and community contexts. Thank you for suggesting the visit to your website! The resources provided there will be quite helpful for teaching my methods course. Thanks!!
Julie

Thanks for this! I enjoyed the video and learning about your project. I am curious about Susan Jo's questions above, so I'll wait to read that response.

Amy

This is interesting. What do you see as the effect of teaching mathematical modeling to students to how they will learn in the future? Do you think that higher level math teachers, such as higher education, will need to add mathematical modeling to their classes? 

We hope so! In our partner districts, there was already work in math modeling at the secondary level, but modeling was not at all addressed in grades K-8.  But over the three years of our project, we have been able to see some students move from initial explorations of modeling in 3rd grade to continued engagement in 4th and 5th grade, and their growth in confidence is remarkable. Students reference tasks that they worked on in prior grades, and take on modeling practices with increasing skill. 

I am excited to learn this, and I appreciate the details you provide in the video and on your Web site about how you are incorporating math modeling in elementary grades. This is so important. Can you share any insights or learning related to the process you went through designing and studying your professional development model to do this work, especially related to your focus on students' community-based knowledge and experiences?

Thanks for sharing the detailed video. I see many teachers skipping the "modeling" tasks in the curriculum because it "messy" as one of your teachers stated in the vidoe but I believe this is where the real learning takes place. How are teachers experiencing the lessons you developed in sequence with the curriclum they are already using. Did you do an overlay to help them identify when to do the lessons or are they identifying when they think is best?

Thanks, Beth

Hi Erin!  Thank you for sharing your video with us!  How did the idea of upcycling plastic bags into jump ropes come to be?  Did your project suggest this activity or did the idea come from a desire to reduce plastic bag waste in a community you were working with?  I guess I'm just wondering if the task was brought to the teachers or if the teachers went out into the community in search of a problem to solve.  I did hear in the video that teachers visited community locations to design modeling activities that connect to their own setting.  If so, does your project intend to collect and share the modelling activities that teachers have already designed based on their own social or community needs?  I think it could spark ideas for other teachers to try to mimic or create new ideas similar to the ones you shared with us.  

Hi Erin and Julia. Love the project. This process directly intersects with the work we're doing around integrating local ecological knowledge and experience in science learning.

 Great project and video!  I am looking forward to using the resources on your website with pre-service teachers this Fall.

Thanks for sharing this video! I am especially interested in how student interests can contribute to the design of mathematical modeling activities. How did you identify which real-world situations would be especially engaging to students?

The teacher we worked with tended to begin with situations that came up in their schools - situations that involved their students, and that generated  authentic questions that needed answers.  Questions related to school/community events, camping trips, gardening and school markets, and class celebrations seemed particularly fruitful.

 Thanks for the great question!