Think About a Person Who is Good at Math (Class Day 1)

On my first day of class, I wanted to set the tone that all students are capable of learning mathematics.  This can be a hard sell in a "Business Calculus class", especially with juniors and seniors that have been removed from a math class by 4 or 5 years.  To help students see that the characteristics of a person who is good in math are actually achieveable by everyone and within their control, I took a lesson from the playbook of Howie Hua.  He sent out a tweet a few days ago about this activity.

Step 1: Instruct students to think of someone they know who is good at math.  The person could be a family member, sibling, friend or classmate.  But it had to be someone they knew.

Step 2: Think about the characteristics that person has that helps them to be good at math.

Step 3: Have students work together to compile their list of 5 characteristics.

Step 4: Display the lists in the room and ask students what they notice about the lists.

The lists generated by one of my classes is posted below.

We had to unpack what "Calculated" meant in the first group.  They described it as being organized and thoughtful about how they approached problems, a "calculated approach".  We also discussed "thinking outside the box".  This is partly seeing things from multiple approaches and can be improved with practice.

In my second class, we put the responses on paper and looked at them under the document camera.  That class had words like focused, organized, hardworking, determined and diligent.  I pointed out that these are characteristics that can be developed by anyone and that means they were all capable of becoming better math students.

I also told the story about my first math quiz grade in college - it was a 50%.  And I mentioned that I went to speak to the professor right away about that grade and then worked hard to understand the material in the course, looking for patterns in the problems, doing extra problems and working with friends.  The lowest quiz grade in that class was dropped and that was my lowest grade. I ended the class with a B+, because I put in the extra effort and got help when I needed it.

Today I had a student find me to check his work and he told me that exercise in class made him realize he should start working early and it motivated him to come in for a little help.  I also had another student email me about coming in for help.  She admitted that math has been very challenging for her in the past, but she wants to work.

So, thank you Howie for a great opening day activity!  And if you don't follow Howie on twitter you really should.