PIE: Partnership For Innovation in Education

‘Coasting 2 Success

Posted by P.I.E. | February 15, 2011

Alexandra Ball, Math Department Head Oakhurst Academy & Teach For America Alumna

Roller coasters are exhilarating examples of algebra.  Yes, it’s true.  As a teacher of math, I wanted to engage my middle school students in a discussion of slope, utilizing the best, real-world teaching tool to enhance their learning experience.   Roller coasters, comprised of multi-slope turns, altitude shifts, perceived force, and gravity changes are universal.  The breathtaking, thrill-inducing, depth defying amusement park ride easily doubles as, a creative way to teach the algebraic concept of multi-directional graph lines, slope, and rate of change.

I needed to develop a solid method that was aligned to the objective but was totally hands-on.  I have learned that when students are afforded the opportunity to experiment with concepts they gain a deeper understanding of why processes are mathematically possible.  They remember and thus excel when assessed, not because they memorized a procedure, but because they were a part of it themselves.  I decided the best way to teach slope was using something that all my students love: roller coasters.

The first day we worked with terminology and basics of slope: appearance, direction, naming etc.  The second day is when the fun came for my students.  They were strategically grouped by performance level and were given guidelines on how to build roller coasters using a tape measure as the track and a marble as the coaster car.  Equipped with their materials and questions to answer along the way, my students were ready to embark on a real life Algebra adventure.  As I watched them build various types of tracks I was amazed at how insightful the responses were.  Even the lower performing  students were able draw conclusions such as, the marble rolled faster because the steeper a negative slope the more gravity is acting on the marble or that roller coasters can’t be made with undefined slopes, vertical lines, because the car will fall off the track every time.  It was amazing to see students so excited about Math and truly understanding why these concepts are important and how they make sense.  They were thinking critically about the process.  At the end of the experiment students were able to build their own designs and experiment with different slopes and levels of force to make their idea roller coaster a reality, if only on a small scale.

The next day was the second test of my method.  Could my students apply what they learned from the experiment the previous day to other real-life examples such as walking up and down hills or across a straight road?  It was profound to see how they were able to transfer and apply knowledge to make conclusions about other scenarios and explain the reasoning behind why the solutions they came to were mathematically logical.  As with all teaching the final and true test of mastery comes from the student’s assessment on the material.  My students had done so well in class that the exam scores were returned with no surprises.  Overall mastery was 88%, which exceeds our class goal of 80% mastery on our Unit Assessments.

My teaching method for this particular topic was successful for two reasons:  it aligned to the learning objectives, and it offered a real-life example that engaged students, using critical thinking skills.   As a teacher, I can engage my students using various methods – but the most impactful are those that revolve around an experience relative to the world.  It takes more time and creativity to engage these new learning opportunities.   However, my credo:  “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it” heightens retention of key math concepts for a lifetime and significantly impacts academic achievement.  Try it sometime.  Remember, even Newton used an apple to teach gravity….

About the Author:

Cincinnati, Ohio native, Alexandra Ball and 2005 graduate of Eastern Michigan University, holds a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies with a minor in Spanish.  She is a 2007 Teach For America Alumna and continues to work with the organization on a regular basis. Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors and career interests who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity.  Ball, Math Department Head at Oakhurst Academy, was awarded Teacher of the Year in May 2010 and was voted by the student body as Favorite Teacher of the Year for the last three years.