UDUPI: A government school teacher has developed a kit to make learning maths interesting. The kit designed by Poornima V Bhat, a teacher from Government High School, Siddapur, for those who dislike maths, has won first prize at the Southern India Science Fair, held at Chaldean Syrian Higher Secondary School, in Thrissur, Kerala, recently.
She said, “This is an activity-based learning kit for students, and has been created using coloured paper and transparent sheets. The importance of teaching and learning mathematics is a challenge for a teacher, because every child in the classroom is different and unique. Each class will have several children who dislike the subject, but are forced to learn it, as it is part of the syllabus. As a result, over the years, I have come across several students who simply memorise the problem, so that they can reproduce the same for exams, without understanding anything. Often, the foundation is poor, and as a result, such children never enjoy maths. Hence, I decided to reach out to children, by using various teaching and learning materials,” she said.
The activity has helped children understand concepts, develop group discussion skills, and make an otherwise boring maths class lively. The materials used to prepare the kit are a different variety of papers, that are easily available. “I have tried to explain signs, angles, rotational symmetry, the axis of symmetry, congruent figures, and how the angle sum of the quadrilateral is 360°, fractions, LCM of the given numbers, factors of the given polynomials, properties of the angle formed in a circle, solving the puzzles, tables, square numbers and bar graphs, and so on. I have tried this out in my class and the interest among children has certainly increased. This is a simple kit for students from primary to high school, “ she said.
She said, “This is an activity-based learning kit for students, and has been created using coloured paper and transparent sheets. The importance of teaching and learning mathematics is a challenge for a teacher, because every child in the classroom is different and unique. Each class will have several children who dislike the subject, but are forced to learn it, as it is part of the syllabus. As a result, over the years, I have come across several students who simply memorise the problem, so that they can reproduce the same for exams, without understanding anything. Often, the foundation is poor, and as a result, such children never enjoy maths. Hence, I decided to reach out to children, by using various teaching and learning materials,” she said.
The activity has helped children understand concepts, develop group discussion skills, and make an otherwise boring maths class lively. The materials used to prepare the kit are a different variety of papers, that are easily available. “I have tried to explain signs, angles, rotational symmetry, the axis of symmetry, congruent figures, and how the angle sum of the quadrilateral is 360°, fractions, LCM of the given numbers, factors of the given polynomials, properties of the angle formed in a circle, solving the puzzles, tables, square numbers and bar graphs, and so on. I have tried this out in my class and the interest among children has certainly increased. This is a simple kit for students from primary to high school, “ she said.
