Math Education Lesson at the Museum

Math Education Lesson at the Museum

Last month my wife and I visited the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. We saved their Pop Art collection for the end because it’s a light way to finish a day at the museum. We were admiring an Andy Warhol piece on Elvis when a guide walked up to us and asked us if we’d like to learn about a piece in the next room. We love to learn, so we took her up on the offer.

It did not go as I had thought. The guide started by saying “Rather than me telling you about the piece, I’m going to give you five minutes to look at the piece and then have you tell me about it.” At first I felt sheer panic, and I immediately thought about how I am sure that I have many students that feel this way in my math classes. Then I did what I suggest to my students – I thought about the piece. I looked for patterns. I looked for symmetry. I looked for parts that stood out. I tried to figure out what the artist was trying to say.

The guide asked for our thoughts and my wife went first. As she spoke I was impressed that she mentioned different characteristics than I had thought of. I shared my observations. The guide acknowledged our contributions and mentioned that she hadn’t thought about the things we mentioned and that they were good impressions. She then told the story of how the piece was created and told us of several other themes that could be found in the work.

It was a great learning experience because she let us do our own discovery first, then she helped us build upon our own observations. I try to do the same in my math classes. Math, like art, needs to be experienced. It should not be something that happens to you, you have to play an active role and become engaged in the process to learn and truly understand. I think I will share this story with my students on the first day of class next semester.

One of my goals for next semester is to encourage my students to think more and for me to “instruct” less. We will be discovering together. It took an unexpected learning experience in an unexpected place to make this all crystal clear to me.

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