Partnership builds math skills

Thanks to a new partnership, more than 50 local elementary math teachers will be put to the test themselves in a series of workshops aimed at improving their abilities to teach math.

The workshops, running October 11 – 13 at the Annex (15 Janey Street in North Bay) and in local schools, are the result of a partnership involving Nipissing University’s Schulich School of Education, the Near North District School Board (NNDSB), the Nipissing Parry Sound Catholic School Board (NPSCDSB), and the US-based Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership (GBMP).

The workshops focus on developing teachers’ numerical reasoning through challenging and engaging problem solving using content from the junior level Ontario mathematics curriculum.  The emphasis is on collaboration, support for, curiosity about, and encouragement of diverse problem solving strategies, all with an eye to transfer the skills learned into effective in-class teaching techniques.

On October 12, participating teachers will return to their own classrooms to engage their students in problem solving tasks learned in the previous day’s workshop.  Their experiences delivering this task will then be reported on and discussed when they return to the Annex on October 13.

The workshop is led by Dr. John Mayer, professor of Mathematics, University of Alabama and Principal Investigator, GBMP; and assisted by his co-worker, William Bond of the University of Alabama.  Schulich School of Education professors Dr. Doug Franks and Dr. Christine Brew, with Sean Meighan and Doug Robidoux of the NNDSB, and Melanie Courchesne of the NPSCDSB will facilitate the workshops.

Funding for the workshops is provided by a STEM (Science, Technology, Math and Engineering) grant from the Schulich School of Education and the NNDSB and NPSCDSB.  Mayer’s work with the GBMP is supported by National Science Foundation grants.