Happy New Year to our fellow mathematicians!
One of the highlights of 2019 was the pilot of the Mathstery Project
In general, the Mathstery project seeks to achieve our organization’s vision: to help kids realize and appreciate the versatility of Mathematics.
What is the Mathstery Project?
Our objective is to help students master topics, in the National Syllabus for Mathematics, in preparation for the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
What happened during the pilot?
We conducted the pilot to evaluate the feasibility and improve upon our future full-scale project. The pilot was run from 13th August to 23rd August 2019. We worked with about 15 to 17 JHS students from a school in Ashaiman, through rigorous practice on a number of questions in key topics they have not mastered. The pilot was run from 9 am to 4 pm each day with a 1-hour break from 12 pm to 1 pm. Students explored mathematics, in groups, with the guidance of six Kids and Math volunteers.
The project culminated with a capstone mini-project that explored a real-life situation, using Mathematics. Students were given questionnaires to gather statistical data, from the Ashaiman community, on topics such as peoples’ favorite food, favorite sports and the circumference and volumes of everyday objects such as a car wheel.
Students also reflected on the project and below are a sample of responses given by them:
“I hated the subject because I thought all those who solved maths never smiled when learning. But Brother Richmond has proved me wrong. Maths is just like other subjects and all it needs is practice”
“I think this program is helping me love maths”
“I have learnt a lot of things I was not able to understand in normal school hours”
“This program has made a great impact in my life”
What are the future plans for the Mathstery Project?
This pilot provided Kids and Math with qualitative and quantitative data that will be essential for a more large-scale project in the future.
We are also working towards possible partnerships with organizations and groups that might also be interested in helping to further develop this project.
#WatchThisSpace #KidsAndMath