Lynn idea evolves at Museum of Science

LYNN – The Museum of Science, Boston and Tufts University announced this week the availability of an inventive new middle school math enrichment curriculum that came into development with the help of Breed Middle School teachers.The Building Math program inspires students to learn algebra by solving engineering challenges on imagined adventures to Mount Everest, the Amazon, and a deserted South Pacific island. The three-book series for grades 6-8 has been piloted successfully over the past two years with hundreds of students in Massachusetts schools, including the Breed.Math teacher and co-leader Kathy White said the school was asked to pilot the Amazon eighth grade portion of the project two years ago with great success. Representatives from Tufts and the museum would come into the school periodically throughout the year and model the lesson plans for teachers, who would then bring it to the classroom.The program was officially unveiled at a reception in the Museum of Science on Tuesday. Input from the piloting teachers was used to perfect the program before its release.Created with support from the GE Foundation’s Math Excellence Program, the series involves math students in collecting and analyzing their own data in hands-on investigations integrated with engineering design activities. Students develop algebraic thinking skills and solve real problems, such as designing a bridge prototype or building a shelter.On each adventure, they apply math knowledge and concepts to their investigations and use the engineering design process to meet challenges. Recommended for enrichment, or as a replacement unit, each title in the series has an engaging theme.In the sixth grade Everest Trek, students must design a well-insulated coat, a bridge to cross a crevasse, and a zip-line transporter to descend Everest in an emergency in preparation of scaling the world’s highest point.The seventh-grade program strands students on a remote South Pacific island where they must problem solve and design shelter, water collectors and a canoe.In an eighth grade Amazon curriculum piloted in Lynn, students had to plan strategies to stop influenza and other diseases in the region.There is national concern that high schools are not graduating enough students with the necessary math skills to study mathematics, engineering, science, or technology in college. In response to the need for trained scientists and engineers, the importance of technological literacy, and the nation’s standards-driven educational system, the Museum of Science established the National Center for Technological Literacy (NCTL) in 2004 to enhance knowledge of engineering and technology for people of all ages and to help build the workforce of the 21st century.”The key to educating students for today’s competitive global economy is to engage them in applying both math and science knowledge to solve real problems. Introducing them to engineering design skills and concepts at a young age can help fuel the innovation of new technologies,” said Museum of Science president and director Ioannis Miaoulis. “That’s why we are developing standards-based engineering curricula reflecting the human-made world.”The Lynn School Department is in the process of implementing a new math curriculum at all grade levels with new mapping strategies and new text books at the elementary school level. Although the program was piloted at Breed, the department does not have the intention of using the curriculum as of yet, but concepts learned from the piloting program could be used in other lessons.