Category: General

Mathtrails with MCM – A Seminar at the University of Paderborn

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General


In the summer semester of 2022, Dr. Susanne Podoworny offered a seminar on MathCityMap for master students of elementary school teaching at the University of Paderborn. We would like to present a report about the implementation of this great seminar idea in this article.

The goal of the seminar was to create and implement a mathematical trail using the MCM app with elementary school children on a suitable theoretical basis.

In the area around Paderborn, two elementary schools could be won over, which agreed to carry out a mathematical trail with five first and two second classes later on.

After a few sessions in which the students explored theoretical backgrounds on learning in out-of-school places, learning with digital media, and of course MathCityMap, four student groups formed to create four mathematical walking paths with MCM. The students found it particularly challenging to create appropriate tasks for the still very young target group. One student wrote in this regard “It’s very difficult to formulate tasks for first grade when the kids can barely read.”

The implementation then took place in a double lesson at each of the two elementary schools. The trails were designed along the schoolyards and often referred to the playground equipment. Overall, the student teachers reported that the students involved, as well as the teachers, greatly appreciated this different mathematics lesson. A questionnaire was distributed to the students by the students and 145 children completed it. Some results can be seen in the following diagram.

 

As a hint from the implementation, the recommendation to integrate a read-aloud function into the MathCityMap app arose, which we gladly take up for the further development of our system.

The seminar was well attended with 24 students. On the one hand, the students appreciated the freedom offered by the seminar design and, on the other hand, the real-life work with elementary school children, which gave everyone a lot of pleasure. Due to the positive response from the students, this seminar will be offered again in the winter semester.

 

Math on Campus!

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

Even in autumn, there are still plenty of opportunities to experience mathematics outdoors! Following this motto, an exchange school program of the Heinrich-Heine-Schule in Dreiech visited the MathCityMap team Frankfurt on the campus of the Goethe University. The group consisting of 18 Spanish students and 13 German students as well as two Spanish and two German teachers had the opportunity to get to know the idea and the functionality of MathCityMap in a short presentation and afterwards to try out a math trail directly on the campus.

 

               


The special feature of the trail was that it consisted of tasks in German, English and Spanish, which made cooperation between the students of the partner schools indispensable.

The MathCityMap team in Frankfurt was very happy about this visit on campus and is always available for inquiries for small trips into the world of mathtrails with MathCityMap at our address info@mathcitymap.eu!

Maths and Art with MathCityMap

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

Also in Italy, the partner school network is constantly growing and we are happy to welcome the “IISS Ettore Majorana” from the city of Brindisi as a new MathCityMap partner school. The application process was initiated by the local math teacher Giovanna Zito, who has already been using MathCityMap in class since 2019.

In addition to her work as a teacher, Giovanna Zito also coordinates the Erasmus+ project “Maths and Art”, in the context of which two of the three trails required for the application were also created in the vicinity of the school. She reports about this as follows:

“The project “Math and Art” is carried out together with schools from Finland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey and is based on three different activities in each partner school.
The most important of the three activities is the creation of at least one MathTrail with MathCityMap in each country. Mixed groups of students from the different partner schools test the trails and give feedback on their experience with MathCityMap. The created trails and the measuring materials, which are needed to solve the tasks, are also made available to the local tourist offices. This way, visitors of the different cities of the partner schools can get to know the respective place in a new way.


The Erasmus project is focused on mathematics and art. For this reason, two of the trails created consider two different historical periods: Ancient Rome and the Middle Ages. In the tasks of the trails some interesting facts and curiosities about mathematics, history and art have been deposited. Thus, the different objects are contextualized mathematically as well as artistically and historically.”

The created trails can be found under the following names and codes in the MathCityMap web portal:

  1. Passeggiando per i parchi (03636)
  2. Brindisi nell’Antica Roma (0311262)
  3. Brindisi medioevale (0511256)   

The trails cover a wide range of topics, including geometry, functions and statistics. Furthermore, there will be translations of the trails into English, so that access to the trails is easily possible.

If you and your school would like to become part of the MathCityMap network, you can find all further information about the partner school program and the requirements for the application in the article about the first MCM partner school as well as on the homepage of our project MaSCE³.

The MathCityMap network keeps growing!

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

We are very pleased that the Nábrežná 95 elementary school in the Slovakian city of Nové Zámky has successfully applied to become a MathCityMap partner school, making it the 37th partner school in total and the fourth partner school in Slovakia. The MathCityMap community in Slovakia is also growing steadily, which can be seen in the graphic that shows all current partner schools worldwide.

 

 

Aneta Vadkerti, a math teacher at Nábrežná 95 Elementary School who initiated the successful application process, has already been able to implement six Mathtrails in the school’s surroundings and reports on her first experience with MathCityMap as follows:

“I have been using the MCM portal and also the mobile application for over 2 years. I have completed 2 online trainings – Mobile Math Trails in Europe (MoMaTre) and also task design for Math Trails. My students love these math walks and I am very happy when I see their satisfaction and smiles while completing the trails. I am currently planning a project day called –Math is Everywhere– to be held at our school on September 28. All 9th grade students will participate, and my main goal is to increase motivation for math as a subject.”

The package with the official partner school plaque and MCM measuring instruments is already on its way to Nové Zámky and we are very much looking forward to receiving more applications from all over the world.

All further information about the partner school program and the requirements for the application can be found in the article about the first MCM partner school as well as on the homepage of our project MaSCE³.

 

Trail of the month: Learn something new!

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

October’s Mathtrail of the Month is located in the Slovakian town of Nové Zámky and lives up to its name “Learn Something New”. It was created by math teacher Aneta Vadkerti as part of the application process for Nábrežná 95 Elementary School to become a MathCityMap partner school. The trail is available in the MCM app under the code 342253 and on the MathCityMap web portal here.

The trail consists of a total of seven tasks, which are designed in such a way that interesting objects in the cityscape are viewed and discovered from a new, mathematical perspective. The mathematical content is wide-ranging and extends from geometric modeling to Roman numerals.

Aneta Vadkerti gives us a short interview below about the creation of the trail and her work with MathCityMap. Enjoy reading!

 

How did you come across the MathCityMap project?

I came across MathCityMap by accident, actually by a stroke of luck. A sister of my colleague works at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra. She told me that they were looking for enthusiastic math teachers who were willing to try and learn something new, able to communicate in English, create some math tasks and try them outdoors, and apply for a teacher training in Granada. The in-service training was only held online due to the pandemic, however, I was able to learn how to work with the MathCityMap portal there. I then attended two more online teacher training courses – Mobile Math Trails in Europe (MoMaTre) and Task Design for Mathtrails – and started using MathCityMap and teaching with MCM.

 

Where is your trail located? What is special about your trail?

The trail is located in the center of the city and is therefore accessible to anyone who likes math and solving problems. It was designed especially for ninth graders, to review what they have learned so far.

 

How do you use MCM and why?

I use MathCityMap to increase motivation for learning math and to relieve the boredom that classroom instruction sometimes struggles with.

My main goal is to connect mathematics with real life situations. I want to show my students that mathematics is really everywhere and that it is really useful and almost necessary to learn it. I want to take away the fear of mathematics. I have always wanted to show my students the beauty of mathematics.

The best thing is to see that the students really have fun while learning. They work in groups, help each other, communicate, compete, sometimes argue, but most of all they have a good feeling when they have solved a task correctly. Every time I do a trail outside with my students, there is a lot of laughter and they are happy. Seeing them happy makes me happy too, so I love MCM and conducting lessons with MathCityMap.

 

Describe your favorite task on the trail. How can it be solved?

My favorite task is “Famous landmarks”. It is a simple but very interesting task that teaches us a lot about the history of Nové Zámky.

 

 

The second German partner school!

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

The German partner school community is also growing and so we are very pleased to introduce the second MathCityMap partner school in Germany today! The “Friedrich Gymnasium Freiburg” has successfully completed the application process and can now look forward to receiving the official partner school plaque and the package with measuring instruments, which is already on its way to the school.

Working with MathCityMap, 10 trails have already been created at and around the school, partly by the school’s students and partly by teachers.

 

In a report created for the Friedrich Gymnasium school website, Dr. Patrick Bronner, a math teacher at the school, wrote in an initial conclusion:

“Despite the tight project timeframe shortly before the summer vacations (July 2022), numerous partner groups of class 9a achieved excellent results. What motivated the students in the MathCityMap project was above all the everyday context, the intensive use of digital media, and the expansion and constant change of the learning space from the classroom to the city center. The experiences during the four-week project period in the school practice are now reflected with the MathCityMap team, the created material is improved and published in didactic journals.”

If you also want to apply with your school as a MathCityMap partner school, you can find all further information about the partner school program and the requirements for the application both in the article about the first MCM partner school and on the homepage of our project MaSCE³.

 

The MathCityMap Team at the GDM Annual Conference

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

As in previous years, it was a special pleasure for our team in Frankfurt to present the ideas and potential of MathCityMap at the recent annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik (Society for Didactics of Mathematics).

As the largest conference for didactics of mathematics in the German-speaking countries, the GDM annual conference not only offers us the opportunity to discuss current research on MathCityMap and the idea of app-supported mathematical walking paths with the scientific community and to generate new ideas for the further development of the MathCityMap system. In addition, we were able to promote the enthusiasm and understanding for the concept of making mathematics experienceable and learnable outdoors with a workshop for teachers on MathCityMap and an information desk on the conference grounds.

We were again able to gain some new impulses for our work and are already looking forward to the appearance of the many contributions on MathCityMap in the conference proceedings of the GDM, which we will of course also link for you on this website.

 

Trail of the month: Mathematics outdoors

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

We are once again in a European capital for the “visit” of the Trail of the Month September. The trail “Mathematics outdoors” is located in a city that bears the same name as the state, Luxembourg. This mathematical walk was created by Claude Reuter as part of the initiative “Mir gi raus” of the SCRIPT, a coordination center for educational and technological research and innovation.

The trail consists of a total of 11 tasks covering a wide range of topics such as geometry, stochastics and arithmetic and is located in the central district of Clausen directly on the Alzette River. The trail is available in the MCM app under the code 4710757 and in the MathCityMap web portal here.

Claude Reuter describes his experience and work with MathCityMap in the following interview. Enjoy reading!

 

How did you come across the MathCityMap project?

I came across MathCityMap while researching on the internet about applications that help in creating GPS-based trails.

 

Please describe your trail?

The MathTrail is intended as an example trail. It is designed to show teachers how mathematics can be experienced in a playful way using simple means in the immediate environment of the school (in this case the schoolyard). Mathematics is everywhere and should therefore not only be dealt with in the classroom.

 

How do you use MCM and why?

MCM is designed to help people experience mathematics. Although mathematics is an exact science, we often work with estimates in everyday life. With MCM, mathematical content can be connected to the real context.

 

Describe your favorite task on the trail. How can it be solved?

My favorite task from the trail is the task to determine the flow velocity of the Alzette River. In this task, the focus is not on the result, but on the process. The result cannot be determined unambiguously. To solve the task, students must come up with possible procedures on their own and then check them for feasibility.

 

The first Estonian partner school!

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

We are very happy to welcome the first MathCityMap partner school in Estonia. The “Saue Kool” (Saue School) in the Estonian city of Saue near Tallinn has successfully applied and has created seven trails and tested them with their students.

Ave Mitt, a math teacher at Saue Kool, initiated the application process and reported his experience with MathCityMap as follows:

My experience with trails in terms of creation is that the MathCityMap website is very easy to use. I like creating these types of different exercises that give me the opportunity to get my class out in the fresh air. The kids expect us to just hang out in the fresh air, but in reality we are learning math in a different environment. My classes are 45 minutes long, so I try to make the most of the time I have. That’s the reason I usually have 5 exercises on a trail. The kids are positively surprised that you can learn math outside the classroom. At the same time, other teachers are also very surprised that MCM has so much positive impact on the students. 

In the spring, I introduced MCM to our teachers. After summer break, I want to create new trails for my students to get them back outside at the beginning of the school year. Here is a list of trails that I have used with my students in the past:

Code: 2611140

Code: 379549

Code: 139540

Code: 469539

Code: 089538

Code: 799537

Code: 359536

The package with the official partner school plaque and the MCM measuring instruments is already on its way to Estonia and we are very much looking forward to receiving further applications from all over the world.

All further information about the partner school program and the requirements for the application can be found in the article about the first MCM partner school as well as on the homepage of our project MaSCE³.

Portugals next partner school

Author Philipp LarmannDate
General

The partner school network of MathCityMap is growing by the week and we already welcome the sixth Portuguese partner school! The “Escola Secundária de Ponte da Barca” in the municipality of Ponte da Barca, located in the north of Portugal, has successfully applied, initiated by the local teacher Cláudia Barreto, and the package with the official partner school plaque and the MCM measuring instruments is already on its way to Portugal.

Cláudia Barreto described for us in the following report how the application as a partner school came about:

“Every year we celebrate “Science Day” at our school. This year the math group decided to challenge our students to participate in the math trails created on the school grounds. Two trails were created: one for students in the 7th, 8th and 9th grade (Trail code: 579742) and the other for the 12th grade students (Trail code: 236662).

All students were very enthusiastic and reacted extremely well to the activity. They especially enjoyed the opportunity to get outside and explore the mathematics that surrounds them.

In fact, they were able to see the applicability of the contents they learn on a daily basis in a real and practical context. Besides that, having the opportunity of working with technology gave them even more motivation and made the activity a lot more interactive for them.”

As always, we are very much looking forward to receiving more applications from all over the world.

Additional information on the partner school program and application requirements can be found both in the article on the first MCM partner school and on the homepage of our MaSCE³ project.