Seabury students started this new school year off to a great start by participating in a Math Trail this week! We love using the "community as our classroom" in all subjects that we teach, and math is no exception. Math Trails provide opportunities for students to explore the math that is around us everywhere and develop skills to problem solve independently and creatively. Students are given problems to solve, but not told how to solve them. They work together in teams to figure out the best way to reach the goal.
We spent our time in local Wright Park, rich with greenery, a beautiful conservatory, a pond, and a playground. Students were armed with measuring tools, their calculators, a clipboard with paper, writing tools, and their enormously creative brains. They were given challenges such as calculating the number of people who could link arms around the pond, estimating the height of lampposts from their shadows, and figuring the percentage of deciduous trees in a given area. Throughout the Trail, students calculated, estimated, compared various results, observed and categorized. They were not expected to provide simple numerical answers, but also be able to explain how they got those answers.
The Math Trail got us out into the community, allowed us to explore the park's hidden secrets as we looked for clues to solve the problems, and taught us to think creatively with our solutions. Math Trails tell a story of the area; when students are done they not only know how to think a little more sharply, but they are a more immersed citizen of the community. They walk home noticing the details around them a bit more clearly. They calculate, they analyze, the apply their knowledge to the real world. Math Trails are everything that Seabury is about and more, and that really adds up!
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