Hey, amazing parents, dedicated educators, and future math wizards!

I have some exciting news that will make this year a game-changer for math education. Prepare to bid farewell to the old-school methods and welcome the dawn of a new era. As we step into the exciting realm of 2024, it's time to talk about a resolution that could truly transform how we perceive and embrace mathematics. Picture this — a world where math isn't a source of dread but a thrilling adventure filled with experiential learning, personalized approaches, and family-bonding math sessions. Buckle up for a paradigm shift in math education that celebrates individuality, embraces creativity, and banishes the fear of numbers. Welcome to the Math Marvels Movement of 2024!

Experiential Learning: Math in Action

Let's break free from the shackles of traditional math education. It's time for a paradigm shift, where the focus is not on cramming formulas but on experiencing the joy of solving real-world problems. Experiential learning is the key — a hands-on, immersive journey that turns math into a living, breathing subject. Experiential learning is the key to turning abstract concepts into tangible experiences that resonate with our young learners. It's time to immerse ourselves in hands-on experiences that turn math into an adventure, not a chore.

Child-Centric Learning: Because Every Young Mind is Unique

No two kids are alike, and that's what makes them incredible. Let's break free from the constraints of the one-size-fits-all model. Your child has unique strengths, interests, and learning styles. Child-centric learning puts your child at the centre, tailoring math education to their needs and passions. It's time to witness the magic that unfolds when education becomes a personalized journey. Whether through visual aids, interactive games, or collaborative projects, let's customize the journey for each learner.

Family-Involved Learning Time: Math, a Family Affair!

Gone are the days of solitary homework struggles! Imagine a scenario where math becomes a family adventure. Family-involved learning time creates an atmosphere of support and encouragement, turning math sessions into opportunities for bonding and shared discovery. Family-involved learning time is about making math a part of daily conversations, games, and activities. Let's turn math into a family affair, creating bonds that last a lifetime.

Redesigning Learning Spaces: Where Creativity Meets Education

Who said learning only happens within four walls? Let's reimagine the learning environment, from interactive digital platforms to outdoor settings that awaken the senses. Redesigning learning spaces nurtures creativity and curiosity, transforming math from a chore into a captivating exploration. Let's create spaces where curiosity thrives, and learning becomes an adventure.

Not Just Chasing Grades: Fostering a Growth Mindset

As we step into 2024, let's shift our focus from the relentless pursuit of grades to cultivating a growth mindset. Let's instil a growth mindset in our children that embraces challenges, learns from mistakes, and values continuous improvement. Math is not just about getting the correct answer; it's about embracing challenges, learning from mistakes, and fostering a mindset that thrives on continuous improvement.; it's about becoming a resilient problem solver.

The 30-Minute Math Mastery Campaign: Your Daily Dose of Empowerment

And now, the pièce de résistance — our New Year Resolution for 2024: The 30-Minute Math Mastery Campaign. Dedicate just half an hour a day to math, engaging in activities that make numbers come alive. This commitment is more than a resolution; it promises to turn fear and anxiety into confidence and mastery.

It's not about the grades; it's about the journey. Let's shift the focus from the result to the growth process. Developing a growth mindset means embracing challenges, learning from mistakes, and understanding that every step forward is a victory. This mindset is the key to unlocking the true potential of every student.

Join the Math Marvels Movement: Your Resolution for 2024!

Parents, educators, and students, the Math Marvels Movement beckons you! Let's make 2024 the year we revolutionize math education. Join us in creating a future where every child is not just a math student but a Math Marvel — confident, curious, and ready to conquer any mathematical challenge. This simple commitment removes fear, builds consistency, and propels you to master math's beauty.

Here's to a year of mathematical marvels, where our kids don't just learn math; they live it. Cheers to the Math Revolution, and may your 2024 be filled with countless "aha" moments and math victories!

Join the Revolution: Let's Make 2024 the Year of Math Mastery!

#30MinuteMathMastery

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Unleashing the Math Marvels: Your New Year's Resolution for 2024! was originally published in Ed3D on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

With summers vacations approaching soon, the kids would have already planned up fun activities to fill their time through these months. Parents, however, would probably be worried that the kids would either be glued to the television or end up wasting their time.

Why not look for a more balanced solution? Something which would be an innovative approach to occupy these two months with activities which are fun-filled and yet provide an academic boost to your child’s skills; especially in the areas of mathematics, coding, programming and technology. Now, isn’t that something that would be equally welcomed by the kids as well as their parents!

Our ten-days S.T.E.M blended with Arts, based learning camp will prepare your child for life by encouraging out of the box thinking and enhancing a deeper understanding of their curriculum concepts, specifically that of mathematics, coding and programming. They will learn to shed their innate fear for math and view it as something which can be connected to everyday life. Our motto is to understand every child’s individual need and identify their strongest skills in terms of learning, be it visual, auditory or kinesthetic . The idea is to not generalize the program for every attendee but to make it specific and child-centric. We encourage our kids to think and to ask questions, AS MANY AS THEY WANT. We want our kids to stop viewing these subjects only in terms of figures and numbers but also visualize and relate it to situations in our daily life. We aim to promote visualization skills in children before connecting it to the previously taught concepts of a set school curriculum.

And what better than a Summer Camp for STEAM based learning, where your child will participate in fun activities and see how their learned mathematics curriculum is applied to these activities and more importantly in life. The aim will be to prepare the kids for numerical thinking and focus on implementing it to problem-solving within real-world scenarios.

No matter whether you see a hidden talent for Computers and Mathematics in your child, or a lack of the same, STEM is for everyone and can begin as early as the age of 4-5 years. Our program is likewise designed for the age groups of 5 to 13 years.

And not just that, our programs on Brain Games and MakerSpace will tickle your grey cells and enhance your reasoning skills, using innovatively designed games, puzzles, and tinkering activities. Your child will thank you for a fun filled 60-90 MINUTES!

Our Coding camps have been a big hit over these years. At first stage we do not look at any programming language, but more design thinking & algorithms, and block-based Coding. Once children learn that way, they can pick up any language. Technology is moving at fast paced, what’s taught in schools is no more use in industry by the the time they are ready for jobs. Hence teaching languages is not important, how to think is important, and that’s what we are going to do in 10 days.

And you can join in too ! Understanding the important role that educators and parents have in changing the thinking aptitude of children and promoting innovative learning techniques, they are also encouraged to participate in the workshops. We have specially designed curriculum for parents & educators for 3–5 days, 6 hours per day. This can open horizons for thinking differently and making connections, while teaching your child(ren). You’ll definitely be rockstar Educator for your kin.

Our all programs are for many WOW ! moments your child will experience. Details for all programs, being launched in this summer camp are as follows:

DESIGN THINKING MATHS

Head to school with confidence!

Perfect student who want to get ahead

This program of 10 days reviews core concepts of school-curriculum math. Through our unique problem-solving approach, your child will develop a deeper understanding of school math concepts so they can better apply what they’ve learned at school and in the real world.

They will develop abstract thinking needed to be successful in higher level mathematics.

5–7 years (10 days —75 mins/day)

7–9 years (10 days — 75 mins/day)

10–13 years (10 days — 75 mins/day)

BRAIN GAMES

Get knee-deep in problem-solving fun!

Perfect for math enthusiasts & out-of-box thinkers

Tackle fun puzzles, solve brain teasers, play math game and learn clever math tricks.

Students will use their powers of deduction to clarify their reasoning, learn new problem-solving strategies as they tackle a variety of brain-teasing puzzles and games. All activities are hands-on, minds-on, engaging and age appropriate.

While they’re busy having fun, students will also be sharpening their creativity, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills. This will give them an edge in maths, logic, reading… and life!

5–7 years (10 days — 75 mins/day)

7–9 years (10 days — 75 mins/day)

10–13 years (10 days — 75 mins/day)

CODING X01

Turn your tech enthusiast into a programmer!

Perfect for kids who love computers

Learn to code animations and games using visual block-based tutorials . This is the perfect camp for a child’s first experience with programming.

Computer programming is a skill that most schools don’t teach.

They can carry on their journey of programming & building games and can access at home even after the camp is over!

5–7 years (10 days — 60 mins/day)

7–9 years (10 days — 60 mins/day)

10–13 years (10 days — 60 mins/day)

This is what we ideate and do in our Computer Teaching, read the blog !

Computer Education for children: Recycle Bin is better than Trash Can

Children need to bring their own Devices, to get configured, and work throughout 10 days. This will help them to take away all their learning back home and even after the camp is over !

MakerSpace

Perfect for creative and crafty kids

Here we move from S.T.E.M. to S.T.E.A.M. : STEM blended with ARTS !

Create, tinker, innovates and design projects to take home for further exploration and discovery. Building and tinkering is a great way for students to learn by doing. In this 10 days-long camp, students will tinker with a number of different fun builds.

Projects will include lessons on Maths & Arts.

7–9 years (10 days — 1.5 hour/day)

10–13 years (10 days — 1.5 hour/day)

Crack the Code

Learn the Math Behind Code Making and Code Breaking!

Perfect for math enthusiasts

Learn to send and receive secret messages of all kinds. Explore the history of cryptography back to Roman times up through modern RSA technology that protects our secrets today. Students will learn the mathematics behind code making. Students will discover one of the fascinating ways math is used in the real-world.

This is the perfect camp for any child with a passion for math & computers. This is a new camp offering!

7–9 years (10 days — 75 mins/day)

10–13 years (10 days — 75 mins/day)

Advanced Math Program

Take Your Child’s Gift for Math to the Next Level

Perfect for bright problem solvers

Hone problem solving skills while learning about Algebra, Number theory, Graph theory, Probability, and Geometry. This is a rigorous, intensive camp for students with an strong affinity for math. It’s designed for bright students to broaden their mathematics education.

Students will be exposed to brain building challenges in wonderful areas of mathematics they won’t be introduced to at school. Students must have a passion for math, strong mathematical knowledge, and a desire to be challenged. This is a new camp offering! Register now to avoid missing out.

7–9 years (10 days — 2.5 hour/day)

10–13 years (10 days — 1.5 hour/day)

Here’s what you get at the end of these ten-day programs: A child with enhanced problem solving skills, an increased understanding of the real life applications of math, technology, coding and programming.

No matter how many books you dig into, you cannot turn into a gardener without getting your hands dirty in the soil. That’s the exact theory on which STEM based learning works. It integrates different curriculum based subjects into real life situations and encourages students to think out of the box and take them up as projects.

Parents, come forward. Register right away and do not miss this excellent opportunity to mold your child’s brain to think differently. Choose based on your child’s current interests and set them up on a new journey of exploring the colorful world of coding and applied mathematics that lays hidden behind the black and white pages of the school books!

Ready to join Ed3D’s Summer Camp then go ahead and register yourself here :

Happy Planning SUMMER CAMP !

Tinker S.T.E.A.M. was originally published in Ed3D on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Make it or Break it …

After this I could either

LOVE or HATE MATHS !

The villain is…

LONG DIVISION ALGORITHM !!!

You get me or not, for my rhythm.

Coz I can’t see what’s happening…

what goes in, what stays out ?

what goes up and what goes down ?

how many groups, what’s in groups ?

what’s my left overs dude !

I wanna know, more than EQUAL DISTRIBUTION…

Please tell me what’s more than

REPEATED SUBTRACTION !!!

For I still struggle with Factors, Multiples & FRACTION !

Can we do more than CALCULATIONS ???

Division algorithms are nightmares for many young brains and the way they are taught without basics being clear, AFTER MULTIPLICATION, not with multiplication, as mere Division fact, not actually creating visual facts. These leave lot of loopholes for children for making further connection. Once they start regressing in Division concepts, immediate effects are visible in Factors, Multiples & FRACTION. Its not because of basics of Fractions, but the root cause is multiplication and division learnt partially or just for solving problems and doing CALCULATIONS.

Once multiplication is taught as Repeated Addition & Division as Repeated Subtraction, children might make connections when the numbers are smaller, perhaps in 2 digits, but as numbers grow either as dividend or divisor, they start taking back seat.

One very interesting fact which comes forward is “multiplication makes the number bigger” and “division makes the number smaller” because they are seen as extension of repeated addition & subtraction, respectively. THIS very concept en-rooted in minds thrash when children start doing FRACTIONS & NEGATIVE INTEGERS. What’s that ?

Multiplying fractions make number smaller and Division yields bigger number. Why is that so ? What actually is the process of multiplication & division irrespective of whether we are multiplying integers or fractions : Rationals or Real numbers to be precise.

First and foremost DEVELOP RESPECT for PLACE VALUE SYSTEM. One needs to understand, concepts of Carry overs, Borrowing, why do we add trailing Zeroes when we multiply by 10’s or add some XXX while using standard multiplication algorithm. What numbers are we pulling down when we divide and why ? Why do we tell children “If first number of dividend is smaller than divisor then use first 2 numbers ? ” This blog and upcoming ones will unlock the mysteries of simple but effective maths for young brains to develop thought process for DIVISION.

Consider the division problem: 24÷4 and 24÷6. What does this mean? What are we being asked to compute?

Traditional school curriculum teaches following strategies, at different stages of Division learning.

1. Division as repeated subtraction: 24÷4 is asking for the number of times one needs to subtract four from twenty four to get to zero, whereas 24÷6 is asking for the number of times one needs to subtract six from twenty four to get to zero.

2. Division as finding groups: 24÷4 stands for how many groups of four can be found in a collection of twenty four, whereas 24÷6 stands for how many groups of six can be found in a collection of twenty four.

3. Division as distribution: 24÷4 is asking for how many star-stickers each child receives if twenty four star-stickers distributed equally among four children, whereas 24÷6 is asking for how many star-stickers each child receives if twenty four star-stickers distributed equally among six children.

4. Division as reverse multiplication: 24÷4 is same as : What times four gives the answer twenty four? 24÷6 is same as : What times six gives the answer twenty four?

5. Division as multiplication of fractions: 24÷4 is actually a one-fourth of twenty four, whereas 24÷6 is actually a one-sixth of twenty four.

6. Division as contained in : This is my personal favorite to think of the phrase CONTAINED IN. This helps me extend the division’s thought process to larger numbers, fractions and negative integers. It connects to PLACE VALUE SYSTEM appropriate. This also helps in connecting to multiples & factors, highest common factors & least common multiples (HCF-LCM).

6. Division as long division algorithm : And now compare the above to this.

How any child on earth could start relating division to this above shot, if he/she hasn’t rote learned and deep rooted memorized that 6 x 4 = 24 and(or) 4 x 6 = 24. Even then probability is less, one could !

Let’s extend the above methods with traditional algorithm first and see how it fits in child’s mind for larger numbers, as this can never be memorized like the smaller numbers, one ACTUALLY NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING & WHY ???

and these are calculated & solved like following traditional long division algorithms…

If these calculations remind of childhood division classes and its effects and non-usefulness, then we certainly need to stop teaching division this way. Let’s make the process more intuitive , connected, sensible, and which resonates with child’s mind !

More in this series …

PS : If you like to hook up to make division simpler, follow me and clap if you like the write up. Do leave your comments, if you have any queries, word of appreciation, memories related to your division classes !

Let’s T.I.N.K.E.R. DIVISION !!! — Blog Series #1 was originally published in Ed3D on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Throw away those Red Pens, Teacher

They make me sad,

they tell I’m bad.

I ain’t bad, I am learning !!!

I make mistakes,

I did not understand,

Can you repeat ?

I don’t want to defeat !

Yes, I make mistakes for I’m learning !

Your RED MARKS tell me STOP !

STOP right away as in traffic light,

RED also has longest wavelength amongst all white.

I wanna correct myself,

I wanna reflect myself,

RED PEN is a FULL STOP.

I wanna correct myself yet..do not stop

I feel like a FLOP !

You taught me COMMA the other day,

There’s still a scope …

There is still my hope …

Can you use PENCIL, instead !

Till I am correct,

Till I am perfect.

I know it’s more pain, will take a lot of your time,

But I promise you teacher you will be the BEST in my lifetime.

I have been thinking to write this from long, for its difficult to breach into something which has been the core of fundamental rules of our lives, whether it’s social rules or educational rules. We are attached to them, we believe if this ain’t there, there isn’t any alternative. We keep following them blindly, without seeing it’s consequences ! Just try to strike them off your list, you can yourself create alternatives.

RED COLOR which symbolizes DANGER, STOP, WRONG, INCORRECT, right from play school in their nursery rhymes, how can be parameter for their potential ? How can it define them !

They are learning, they ought to make mistakes. With RED PEN we give them the message, mistakes are not acceptable, mistakes are irreversible, mistakes cannot be corrected, and that’s our Verdict !

I use pencil, a graphite black light colored pencil with an eraser !

As simple :-)

I tell each one of them, you ought to make mistakes, they are ACCEPTED, they are RESPECTED, they are ERASED, you can take your time to understand, I can REPEAT as long you don’t understand. This is OUR teamwork. When you leave my class, I need you to learn all what we taught.

My reflection of teaching is their learning, if they are not learning, I am not teaching well enough then. I need introspection, they do not. I need to change myself, they are NATURAL…

Throw away those Red Pens !!! was originally published in Ed3D on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Fear lies within

There was a group of 8th grade boys who came to me around 2 years back to learn JAVA for a year-end exam they had to write in 5 days. When asked for their course, they handed me their notebooks with some 20 odd hand-written programs. The questions starting from WAP… and programs starting from public static void main () {…}. And then, right from opening bracket to closing bracket, everything between the lines was learnt by heart, verbatim. There wasn’t any logical differentiation between ‘=’ and ‘==’, or a “,” and ‘;’ or ‘for’ and ‘while’ or ‘do-while’ loops. For all the excuses, there was just one justification “Our Sir told us this way!” There was no excitement or learning in this method.

Those 5 days were like right from scratch to the level they could write programs logically, without mugging up and they did well in the exam. But what happened next was disturbing. I asked them to write their codes on computer because eventually that’s where codes are meant to be written, not on papers. There was 10 minutes silence in the room and 20 minutes persuasion to go back to paper-pen, their hands trembled and finally they convinced me to copy their hand-written codes for that day! I agreed. But when it turned into compile-time and run-time errors and syntax errors to top the list, things got very interesting. Rectifying our own mistakes and learning from them, is a gift we give ourselves. The earlier we learn from it, the better we get and that much farther we can go.

Discipline is an Art

How beautiful it is to move into kids’ time-space and teach them the way they learn! Let them comprehend that while preparing their 2-minutes Maggie noodles, or their daily chores schedule, they can lead to something big like ALGORITHMS. How messy their noodles could be, or how chaotic their day could be if they skipped or re-ordered any of the steps. SEQUENCE IS IMPORTANT. How being in discipline can produce better algorithms and being smart and punctual can produce OPTIMIZED ALGORITHMS in time & space.

We are part of a vicious cycle

We need to make them observe the fact that our real lives are programmed too, either by ourselves or by nature. Once we start receiving those signals, we start finding PATTERNS in them. Why do their nursery rhymes end with similar rhyming words? Why do their dancing moves repeat the steps, why do they have to follow the same routine everyday and suddenly what happens on Sunday? Why do patterns break? How does the multiplication times table follow certain patterns, how does day and night follow a pattern or for that matter, water-cycle or butterfly-life cycle? When they learn these patterns, they tend to be inquisitive about patterns in general-how do they start and repeat, what is the sequence in each iteration, how many times does it repeat, when does it stop, will it ever stop or not? The answer to each of these questions is astonishing LOOPS. Vicious cycles and efforts to break these loops are the most fascinating part of programming.

Name is Enough!!

One sunny afternoon, my boy brought a music sheet from school and it read like this :

Verse 1

Yeah, you can be the greatest. You can be the best

You can be the King Kong banging on your chest

You can beat the world. You can beat the war

You can talk to God, go banging on his door.

You can throw your hands up. You can beat the clock (yeah)

You can move a mountain. You can break rocks

You can be a master. Don’t wait for luck

Dedicate yourself and your gonna find yourself

CHORUS

Standing in the hall of fame (yeah) And the world’s gonna know your name (yeah)

’Cause you burn with the brightest flame (yeah) And the world’s gonna know your name (yeah)

And you’ll be on the walls of the hall of fame !!!

Verse 2

You can go the distance You can run the mile

You can walk straight through hell with a smile

You can be the hero You can get the gold

Breaking all the records they thought never could be broke

Yeah, do it for your people Do it for your pride

How are you ever gonna know if you never even try?

Do it for your country Do it for your name, ’Cause there’s gonna be a day…

CHORUS

Verse 1

CHORUS

Verse 2

CHORUS

Does it ring any bells? Sequence — yes, Patterns — OK, yes! But why Chorus written 4 times above, is just mentioned as CHORUS once and rest it’s just reference other times. Same holds for Verse 1 and 2. How drawing shapes, numbers, alphabets learnt once and you ask them anywhere, anytime, they have same quick response fetched from layers of memories and here is the answer! How this quick response is translated from already fed reference- in other words, FUNCTION CALL! Define once and use the name to refer to it as many times as you want.

Negotiation: War to Win or Lose or Draw or Mutual Agreement!

Who else can be the best negotiators than kids? Every now and then parents are negotiating on terms and conditions.

If you wake up on time then we will ………………….. else we will …………………..

If you finish your meal on time AND behave well then we will ……………else we will ………………

If you finish homework on time OR if you finish your project on time then we will ……. else we will ……….

And that’s how the story goes. Within these daily negotiation deals, we are making choices, CONDITIONAL choices, which is another building block of programming.

It’s all in-programmed thereafter

Once as a parent and educator you have exposed them to these faculties, their brain starts thinking this way. Introduce them to any programming language be it, C, C++, Java or any other high-level programming language or scripting language, they will master it. Give them real life scenarios, break them into smaller chunks, try to find granular steps and then look for patterns in it for repeating steps, loop them. Try to recall previous already done tasks instead of doing all-over again, prototype them. Life gives us new ways to look at.

Integrating other subjects to computers

Visual learning always has long-term effect. When children can see their times tables are following patterns and can be fed as data-entry in Excel Sheets and apply formulae on them, they see magic. When they can paint their imaginations in Paint or Canva, when they can write their stories or make projects in Word and edit them with crazy editing tools, we open a world of opportunities for them. Most fun is when they want to show off their skills to the world and PowerPoint, Prezi, blogs, websites become their best resorts, let them flaunt. When they pick up TED-Ed talks, YouTube documentaries, or Pinterest for research, let them quench their thirst for knowledge, you’re upbringing an independent learner. Schools are no more monopoly of knowledge, the world of internet when guided judicially, can hone ignited minds.

Computer Education is more than Programming-Coding and Digital Literacy…

While being a computer pro, where my half my day is spent in front of the laptop, I have assigned limited screen-time to my son who is 7 year old. When I see new parents pleasing their children with smart phones, I-pads and tablets, as a substitute for their time, as an excuse of making them tech-pro and boasting about their gadget handling skills without educating them for digital footprints or cyber security, my heart goes off. Science and technology can make or break a child’s future, depending on how you use them.

When I asked my son, why he liked to work on computers, his first reply was that he could edit his mistakes instantly. He could learn, re-learn and unlearn to achieve perfection. And second was that he wanted to save papers. Recycle bin is better than trash can. His future plans are to become animator for Pixar movies because he loves math, drawing and he believes that he can code them for his creations soon!

Computer Education for children: Recycle Bin is better than Trash Can was originally published in Ed3D on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.