Blog #60 -MAKING A LESSON RELEVANT
Making lessons relevant generates interest and thus motivates students’ desire to learn. When teaching mathematics, I always sought to find a practical application to the concepts that I was teaching. Students were constantly asking, “Why do I need to learn this?” One of the best ways to have students apply what they learn is through the solution of stated problems. Stated problems can be written for students from elementary through college. While writing stated problems, the content of the problems can be written to apply to something locally or within the state that is of interest to the student. On some occasions, I had students fill out a survey that included hobbies and other things of interest. Many times I used the content of the surveys when writing word problems that were more relevant.
There were times when my students went outside the classroom to apply mathematics concepts that they had learned. I remember using a straw, protractor and tape to build an instrument for measuring angles of inclination. My students would also measure lengths using a tape measure. Combining the data along with their knowledge of basic trigonometry, they were able to determine heights of trees, buildings and the flagpole. In an indoor activity, my students used a piece of string and ruler to find the circumference and the radius of a variety of cylindrical objects. They then used the knowledge that “pi” is equal to the circumference divided by the radius and a calculator to approximate the value of “pi”. Thus indoor or outdoor activities could be developed to apply mathematics and make it more relevant.
Having access to the Internet makes it easier to find activities or exercises where you can make lessons more relevant. Whether using Google or YouTube, there are thousands of ways to create interest in your students. Showing videos of mathematics in action is one other way that you can bring life to a lesson. If you are willing to implement some of the ideas in this blog, you and your students will be more enthusiastic about mathematics.