A third partner school in Italy
All good things come in threes! With the successful application of the Istituto Comprensivo “Commenda”, there are now three official MathCityMap partner schools in Italy. Maths teacher Manuela Saponaro created two trails in the vicinity of the school in Brindisi and tried them out with her students.
She told us about the trails she created and her experience with her class as follows:
“Both Math trail cross well-known places in the city and through tasks suitable for different school levels test students on various areas from numerical to geometric, trying to develop in them the ability to problem solving and encouraging creativity.
The trails were tested both with pupils of the school and with a group of Polish students and teachers during an Erasmus + project. The students were also provided with the paper file in addition to the use of the app, in order to then reflect on their task resolution methods.
The students initially seemed disoriented since the approach to the problem of Mathematics was different from what they had been accustomed to until then. After the initial surprise and further clarification on the use of the app, the dominant feeling was the excitement and the desire to win the challenge.
Elements of strength were certainly the playful approach and the collaboration between the boys. These felt free to make their contribution without fear of error, while we noticed hesitation in wanting to use the tips in order not to lose points … they wanted to make it on their own even at the risk of ending the chances of attempting.
A critical element that we observed was time management and the inability to adequately use measuring instruments. Moreover, thanks to this activity, gaps have clearly emerged on the contents that will be recovered and enhanced.
The course gave the opportunity to enhance the attention on some details of their city on which the students had never dwelt and become aware of how much mathematics was around them.
Even the Polish colleagues and the Italian teachers involved were enthusiastic and understood how this way of doing mathematics is highly engaging and inclusive and gives the possibility to solve real problems of reality.
The totality of the participants following a questionnaire administered to them expressed the desire to include the use of Math City Map within the curricular activities or as an in-depth tool during the guided tours.”
The trails are available under the following names and codes in the MathCityMap system:
In addition to the experiences Manuela Saponaro shared with us, she wrote an article for the 36° Convegno nazionale Incontri con la matematica, an important national conference on mathematics didactics in Italy, in collaboration with other mathematics teachers, Lucia Del Chiaro, Giovanna Zito and Eugenia Taranto. Here, the teachers reported on their previous activities with MathCityMap under the title “Matematica in città”.
The package with the official partner school badge and the MCM measuring instruments is already on its way to Italy and we are very much looking forward to receiving more applications from all over the world.
All further information on the partner school programme and the requirements for application can be found both in the article on the first MCM partner school and on the homepage of our MaSCE³ project.
