Teachers, students and administrators accepting the first place prize for total skills mastered in the secondary division at the 2014 MATHletes National Championship
Today’s guest post comes from Sharon McGrath principal at Fingal Community College in Swords, Co. Dublin, who talks about the impact of that MATHletes & Khan Academy have had on the school.
MATHletes at Fingal CC
Fingal Community College are the 2014 MATHletes Challenge National Champions. The Challenge transformed the teaching and learning of mathematics in our school and made maths ‘cool’, fun and engaging.That’s no mean feat!
This innovative way to engage students in learning maths was introduced to Fingal Community College initially on a small scale by an single teacher in to her 2nd year maths class. The eagerness and enthusiasm of these 2nd year students was infectious and very quickly students in other classes and other year groups wanted to participate!
The maths teachers in Fingal CC quickly saw the potential of the MATHletes Challenge and grabbed the opportunity to promote the initiative among all Junior Cycle classes.The energy and enthusiasm of the teachers was the single most important factor in the success of the initiative. This zeal transferred to parents and students, and the entire project became was a remarkable example of all stakeholders working closely together towards a common goal.
The teaching and learning of maths in Fingal CC has been monumentally transformed by our involvement in the MATHletes Challenge. Self assessment and independent learning are key skills that Khan Academy fosters, and the fun and engaging nature of the competition made it a uniquely rewarding experience for all involved.
Benefits for Students
In Khan Academy students can practise maths at their own pace using the adaptive assessment environment. Students can make use of the extensive library of content, including interactive challenges, assessments, and videos from any computer with access to the web. They can start at 1 + 1 and work their way into calculus or jump right into whatever topic needs some brushing up. Each problem is randomly generated, so they never run out of practice material.
Benefits for Teachers
Teachers have unprecedented visibility into what their students are learning and doing on Khan Academy. They can get a summary of class performance as a whole or examine a particular student’s profile to figure out exactly which topics are problematic. The teacher reports let teachers glance at their dashboard and quickly figure out how to best spend their time teaching. Khan Academy’s materials and resources are available completely free of charge – and no there is no catch!
Beyond MATHletes: Mapping project in partnership with DCU & Khan Academy
Sean O’Sullivan, Irish entrepreneur and formerly of RTE’s Dragon Den has been funding the MATHletes project in Irish schools over the last year. He has undertaken aproject with DCU to carry out a mapping exercise to show the connections between the Exercise Platform and the Irish Maths curriculum. Ms. Ciara Chaney who first introduced MATHletes to Fingal CC and her fellow maths teacher, Ms. Claire Scanlon teachers are currently working on this project as the secondary school advisors and curriculum developers.
A truly transformative experience
