Simon Barlovits | MathCityMap

Trail of the Month: Veľké Borové – 2nd Part

In this interview with Sona Ceretkova, we focus on the learning path “[MCM@home]Veľké Borové” which is awarded as MathCityMap Trail of the Month in April 2021! The first part of the interview can be seen here. Collection of MCM@home Trails: Click here to get an overview about all digital learning paths which were created by […]

In this interview with Sona Ceretkova, we focus on the learning path “[MCM@home]Veľké Borové” which is awarded as MathCityMap Trail of the Month in April 2021! The first part of the interview can be seen here.

Collection of MCM@home Trails:

Click here to get an overview about all digital learning paths which were created by MathCityMap partners

Dear Sona, what are your experiences with MCM@home? How did the students work on the digital learning path?

We offered [MCM@home] Veľké Borové to two different groups of pupils and students as a relaxation, a reward for their work in online math classes during the autumn of 2020.

The first group was a group of teenagers (ages 14 – 19). They are students of a secondary art school, a total of 145 students. They chose their study also because they feel like artists who do not need mathematics. This is reflected in the study program, with only one hour of mathematics per week and the students, logically, consider mathematics to be a “necessary evil and suffering”. The most appropriate strategy for teaching mathematics in such an environment is to prepare and teach each mathematics lesson as a separate event. The MCM trail fascinated all the artists-students, there were only a few exceptions. After completing the trail, the teacher received appreciative feedback such as: “This kind of math is also for those who do not need or like mathematics.” The main reason is the use of the application on a mobile phone and immediate feedback after sending the result. This is, as it has already been stated several times, the strongest emotional impact of the MathCityMap principle of solving mathematical problems.

Compared to solving tasks with the original outdoor MCM trail, strong emotions will not disappear, when solving MCM@home tasks. On the contrary, emotions gain strength, because, as the students admitted, parents or siblings helped them solve problems from home. In addition, the place where the trail was located on the map, was known to some of the students. They had visited the village of Veľké Borové, Chočské vrchy Mountains or the neighboring valleys, Kvačianska and Prosiecka, registered in the UNESCO list of protected areas, as part of family trips in the past. The trail tasks brought back positive, pleasant memories and the students were happy to share their personal experience with the teacher and classmates during the online lesson.

Did you also make experiences using MCM@home on uiniversity level?

A second group of students (60 female students) was a group of future elementary school teachers. Mathematics in this university program is divided into several theoretical and practical subjects. The students received the [MCM@home] Veľké Borové trail as a reward for their performance during the whole semester in the subject: Methods of solving mathematical problems, taught in a Digital Classroom. Similarly like with the secondary school students, in the case of this group of future teachers, more than half of whom have no positive attitude towards mathematics, the MCM trail lesson had a strong emotional impact.

In the feedback, the students talked about the thrill they felt when sending the result of the task, about the disappointment if the result was not correct and about the joy if the application immediately praised them for the correct answer. Some students also mentioned that they know the location and like to think back to their experiences of hiking in this area of Slovakia. Several students showed interest in creating their own tasks and requested methodological instructions for creating MCM tasks and trails.

… to be continued …

Trail of the Month: Veľké Borové – 1st Part

Sona Ceretkova was one of our international partners in the Erasmus+ project MoMaTrE which aimed at the development of MathCityMap from 2017-2020. In the last year, Sona and her team from the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, created several MCM@home digital learning paths. In this interview, we focus on the learning path “[MCM@home]Veľké […]

Sona Ceretkova was one of our international partners in the Erasmus+ project MoMaTrE which aimed at the development of MathCityMap from 2017-2020. In the last year, Sona and her team from the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, created several MCM@home digital learning paths. In this interview, we focus on the learning path “[MCM@home]Veľké Borové” which is awarded as MathCityMap Trail of the Month in April 2021!

Collection of MCM@home Trails:

Click here to get an overview about all digital learning paths which were created by MathCityMap partners

Dear Sona, please describe the idea of MathCityMap and MCM@home.

MathCityMap trails are originally designed to solve problems about real objects in the outdoors. The MCM@home version was introduced in the spring of 2020, during the first lockdown of schools across Europe. It has become a welcomed activity in online math classes or as a homework, since schools are still closed in most European countries. The MathCityMap application opens up many opportunities for every teacher to make online classes of mathematics more interesting.

One of the possibilities is to create a new MCM@home trail for a selected thematic unit, which students should be able to master in the given school year. For example, geometry of solids, tasks to calculate the volume, surface or the weight of a given object. A very appropriate topic is also combinatorics or tasks for verifying mathematical skills in calculations of distance, speed and time. The interdisciplinary topic of mathematics and physics is in elementary school mathematics usually taught as part of a whole: Word problems solved by linear equations.

Of course, when creating a new trail, the author – the teacher, has to go outside, take pictures of the objects and find out data about the objects, which he/she then incorporates into the tasks. Another possibility is to create a new MCM@home trail from an existing classic outdoor MCM@home trail. Here arises the magical opportunity to take a virtual walk wherever the original MCM trail was created.

How can students work on MCM@home trails?

Students can solve the trail directly in the Digital Classroom, usually individually, and send the teacher a screenshot of the solution of the tasks or trails. Because each task and each trail in the MathCityMap app is scored, the teacher can grade students based on their performance, the total number of points earned, or the number of points earned for solving each task.

Another possibility is to send students the assignment as a pdf and ask them to send the solution of individual or selected tasks back within the set time limit, including a documentation of the solution steps (scan or picture). In this procedure, the teacher can verify which methods of problem solving students have used, whether they have mastered the methods and procedures presented to them in the class or studied from the textbook or other materials, whether they make numerical errors or whether there is a problem with insufficient math knowledge in mathematization of the real situation, etc.

Of course, it is also possible to use the Digital Classroom application to directly monitor the progress of individual students during online math lessons. However, it is necessary to take into account the technical capabilities of students, the quality of internet connection at their home address and it is not appropriate to evaluate students based on how fast they have solved the tasks in the trail. Task in pdf format are suitable when there are students in the class, who do not have a digital device, mobile phone or tablet.

… to be continued …

Task of the Week: Volume of the Bulwark

Katalin Retterath is a mathematics teacher and consultant for teaching development in the German fedaral state Rhineland-Palatinate. In the following interview, she introduces us to a task that was created during an teacher training on outdoor mathematics teaching. The task: Bulwark – Volume: Task: “Go to the interior of the bulwark. Calculate the volume of […]

Katalin Retterath is a mathematics teacher and consultant for teaching development in the German fedaral state Rhineland-Palatinate. In the following interview, she introduces us to a task that was created during an teacher training on outdoor mathematics teaching.

The task: Bulwark – Volume:

Task: “Go to the interior of the bulwark. Calculate the volume of the interior in m³ up to the capstones. Assume that the floor is level.”

The goal here is to calculate the volume of a cylinder, which the bulwark encloses with a circular base.

You describe in the category “About the object” that the task was created during an teacher training. How do you use MCM and why?

I am a consultant for instructional development at the pedagogical state institute in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. I don’t remember how I got to know MCM, probably at a conference. I have known MCM from the beginning and use it in my classes 1-2 times a year during virus-free times.

At the pedagogical state institute we offer advanced trainings also for the use of media in mathematics lessons, here MCM is a topic again and again. One of the most successful advanced trainings is “Outdoor Mathematics” – a two-day event, which we have offered so far alternately in Speyer, Bad Kreuznach and Andernach. The task “Bulwark – Volume” was created by a group of participants in Andernach – I just created it in the MCM system.

How do you plan to use MathCItyMap in the future? What ideas do you have for using MCM in math classes?

It’s a very great tool! I look forward to using it again. We consultants have also used MathCityMap in another way, including outdoor math: we created a series of surveying tasks around Speyer Cathedral (code: 031829) and entered them into MCM.

With the help of MCM we have been able to create very appealing booklets for the participants of the advanced training [also MathCityMap offers the possibility to download a trail guide as a companion booklet to the trail; editor]. These booklets help document the work so that the field trip can be better integrated into the classroom: In addition to entering results in the app, the notebooks are used anyway / in parallel. I would try it out like this in a 10th grade or high school class – if times allow and I have a suitable class.

Task of the Week: GeomeTREE

Our new Task of the Week is presented by Marius Moldovan. The upper secondary student from Bad Neustadt has created three math trails in Bad Neustadt together with 13 other learners as part of his school lessons. We talk about his task “GeomeTREE” task in the following interview: How do you use MCM? I […]

Our new Task of the Week is presented by Marius Moldovan. The upper secondary student from Bad Neustadt has created three math trails in Bad Neustadt together with 13 other learners as part of his school lessons. We talk about his task “GeomeTREE” task in the following interview:

How do you use MCM?

I am a student at the Rhön Gymnasium in Bad Neustadt. As part of a project in school, we (14 students) created three trails in Bad Neustadt. We have been working on the trails for several months and would like to publish them now.

Note: In the meantime two of the trails have been published:

Describe your task. How can it be solved?

My task is about determining the height of a tree. For this you should use the ray theorem or the Förster triangle. It is a good idea to form a ray set figure with the tree using a geo triangle. To do this, hold one corner of the triangle in front of your eye. One of the short sides of the triangle must be parallel to the ground, while the long side must point to the face. Then you have to decrease or increase your distance to the tree until the extension of the long side of the triangle ends exactly at the highest point of the tree. Now all you have to do is measure the distance from your point of view to the tree and add your height up to your eyes. Since the two short sides of the geo triangle are the same length, the distance to the tree is also the height of the tree from eye level.

What can you learn by working on this task?

The goal of the task is to expand students’ geometric understanding. The ray theorem should be conveyed in the task in a comprehensible way, which additionally demonstrates its possible applications outside the classroom.

Trail of the Month: Mathematics is everywhere!

Matthias Ratering has already held several teacher trainings in South Tyrol on the use of MathCityMap and MCM@home. In this interview, he presents his trail to the MCM@home webinar and explains to us what potential he sees in our Digital Classroom feature. What is your webinar about? How are you using MathCityMap? Teacher training […]

Matthias Ratering has already held several teacher trainings in South Tyrol on the use of MathCityMap and MCM@home. In this interview, he presents his trail to the MCM@home webinar and explains to us what potential he sees in our Digital Classroom feature.

What is your webinar about? How are you using MathCityMap?

Teacher training is one of my areas of work. For that I organized a webinar for teachers to learn about MCM and test the possibility of using it in distance learning. Normally, of course, I prefer to use it outdoors. However, MCM’s digital classroom offers a delightful alternative for distance learning, but not only.

Note: The trail to the webinar can be found here.

Describe one of your assignments. How can it be solved? What can learners (or webinar participants) learn in the process?

The task “Fasching” is about a father who wants to dress up and has several hats and ties to choose from. The children are asked to think about how many possible combinations there are. It is not necessary that the children have studied combinatorics in class. A discovery approach to this subject area is possible.

How can MathCityMap be used for distance learning (MCM@home)? What opportunities and limitations do you see?

The digital classroom is a very practical tool. This tool allows me to have a better overview of each student, who is working on what or who has already done what. In addition, it is often useful because you can communicate with the children in chat and thus support them. The digital classroom also helps me get additional feedback on my students after they have completed the questions.

Any other comments about MCM?

MCM is a tool that is constantly evolving and has a community that is always growing. As such, it would be nice to see more teachers from other subjects join in the future to enrich the design of trails. I believe that there is still a lot of potential here and that great interdisciplinary projects can be realized.

Congratulations Iwan!

Iwan has made it! The MathCityMap team Frankfurt would like to congratulate Iwan Gurjanow on his doctoral degree! Over the past six years, Iwan has not only played a major role in the conceptual development of MathCityMap, but is also responsible for the technical realization of our learning platform: As a product owner, Iwan has […]

Iwan has made it! The MathCityMap team Frankfurt would like to congratulate Iwan Gurjanow on his doctoral degree!

Over the past six years, Iwan has not only played a major role in the conceptual development of MathCityMap, but is also responsible for the technical realization of our learning platform: As a product owner, Iwan has programmed our system from its infancy – to its current point: a successful and award-winning educational app with more than 20,000 tasks worldwide!

Dear Iwan,
we are very happy – professionally as well as humanly – that we could work with you in the past years. We look back on our great time together with a smile in our eyes and look forward to the approaching farewell with a tear in our eyes:
We wish you all the best for your future!
Your MathCityMap Team Frankfurt

Here are some impressions from three years of MathCityMap with Iwan:

We celebrate 20,000 tasks on the web portal!

MathCityMap celebrates the 20,000th task in the web portal! In the past weeks and months, you, dear users, have been active and created numerous interesting tasks in the web portal. Our anniversary task was created by Jesica Sanchez Lagrange near Madrid and asks for the circumference of a rectangular information board. Click here to display […]

MathCityMap celebrates the 20,000th task in the web portal! In the past weeks and months, you, dear users, have been active and created numerous interesting tasks in the web portal.

Our anniversary task was created by Jesica Sanchez Lagrange near Madrid and asks for the circumference of a rectangular information board. Click here to display this task.

We are looking forward to many more MathCityMap tasks!

2021-03-14: International Day of Mathematics with MCM@home

March 14 is International Day of Mathematics (IDM) – and MathCityMap is there, too, of course! Our MCM educator Simone has created a great MCM@home trail. We look forward to your participation! A truly well-rounded event! The MathCityMap@home-Trail makes clear in which objects mathematics – especially circles and the number Pi – can be found. […]

March 14 is International Day of Mathematics (IDM) – and MathCityMap is there, too, of course! Our MCM educator Simone has created a great MCM@home trail. We look forward to your participation!

A truly well-rounded event! The MathCityMap@home-Trail makes clear in which objects mathematics – especially circles and the number Pi – can be found. The mathematical walk takes place in a different way than usual from home. Nevertheless, there is a lot to discover and calculate!

All you need to do is download the MathCityMap app. You can access the trail by adding routes and entering the given code. MCM users around the world were engaged in creating MCM@home trails for International Day of Mathematics (Pi Day):

Simone Jablonski created a MCM@home trail in Germany. The Digital Classroom can be invoked by entering the code s161437. Participation is possible between 0 and 23:55.
In Italy, Flavia Mammana and Eugenia Taranto prepared two MCM@home trail. With the code (044258) you can work on the trail for lower secondary students. The second trail (code 184244) treats topics on upper secondary level.
In Slovakia, Sona Ceretkova created the digital learning trail “[MCM@home]Pi-Nitra.” This can be accessed with the code 084229.
In Indonesia, Adi Nur Cahyono has prepared an MCM@home trail, which can be worked on today with the code s281455 as part of a digital classroom.

Our great MCM online teacher training starts today!

Today marks the start of our MCM online teacher training! In our MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), participating teachers will learn over the next twelve weeks, … learn how to use the MathCityMap system for out-of-school mathematics education with the help of digital tools, … create their own tasks and math trails with MathCityMap and […]

Today marks the start of our MCM online teacher training! In our MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), participating teachers will learn over the next twelve weeks,

… learn how to use the MathCityMap system for out-of-school mathematics education with the help of digital tools,
… create their own tasks and math trails with MathCityMap
and to conduct their own lessons in the MathCityMap digital classroom.

Of course, sharing one’s own teaching experiences is also in the foreground in this international teacher training. More than 400 teachers from all over the world are participating. We are very happy about this great response to our free MOOC, which is co-funded by the European Union within the Erasmus+ project MaSCE³.

Note: All interested persons can still register for our MOOC up to and including 28th March on http://dimamooc.unict.it/.

We welcome our new MCM Reviewers from Indonesia!

We welcome our new MCM Reviewers from Indonesia! Together with our long-time MCM supporter Adi Nur Cahyono, the new mebers will review the tasks submitted for publication and help you make the tasks even better. We look forward to many new tasks from Indonesia! * Do you want to become a MCM Reviewer? * But […]

We welcome our new MCM Reviewers from Indonesia! Together with our long-time MCM supporter Adi Nur Cahyono, the new mebers will review the tasks submitted for publication and help you make the tasks even better. We look forward to many new tasks from Indonesia!

*** Do you want to become a MCM Reviewer? ***

But it’s not just Indonesia we’re looking for new reviewers – the MathCityMap team is looking for reviewers for all languages and countries.
You also want to become a MCM reviewer? Great!
Send us an email to info[at]mathcitymap.eu and complete a small training program for reviewers. We are looking forward to you!