Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE- At the request of the Riverdale School District, 24 University of Wisconsin-Platteville students recently hosted a Family Math Night at Riverdale Middle School. As their class project, students from UWP math professor Jodean Grunow's Integrated Mathematics/Science class offered games and activities for children and their parents. The games aimed to bring an element of fun to mathematics. UWP students in groups of two set up their math-related games and activities in the school's gymnasium and presented them to parents and children.

The Family Math Night offered the future educators the opportunity to practice explaining concepts to children as well as communicating with parents. "This event helped prepare us for our future classroom by showing us the importance of parent involvement," explained Casey Cordts, a senior elementary education major. "Parents are very important in the education of their children, and it is our job as educators to create ways to build family connections in education."

UWP student teams developed their games as a class project for the Integrated Mathematics/Science class. The activities presented by students were to be applicable to a wide range of ages and abilities, engaging, fairly easy to understand and enticing. Throughout the evening, students had to adjust to those who visited their table, from the very young to the very experienced, similar to what educators encounter in the classroom.

Senior elementary education majors Pamela Lease and Ryley Laird worked together on a puzzle activity for their project. "We had tangram puzzle pieces furnished by UWP and had several different puzzle pieces for students to try," explained Lease. "With this activity, we were trying to help students and parents understand that math, in this case geometry, can be fun and interesting. We found that many of the students and parents loved the activity and wouldn't stop until they could figure out the puzzles they were working on."

Cordts joined senior elementary education major Sarah Jarvis to create a game called Math Memory. The game tested memory in the context of seven different math areas: multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, money, time and shapes. The wide range of tested areas allowed Cordts and Jarvis to adapt their game to any students between pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. "Being able to adapt the game was very important because many students in classrooms may have diverse needs, so as an educator, one is going to have to adapt their lesson in many ways to meet the needs of those learners," explained Cordts.

The evening was mutually beneficial, allowing UWP education students to hone skills that will be needed in the classroom and made math interesting for students and parents who attended the event. "I am so proud of our UWP mathematics/science students," said Grunow. "They took a difficult task, addressed it with creativity and diligence, proceeded with aplomb, and established themselves as educators."

"This was one of the greatest experiences I have had so far in my college career," remarked Lease. "I was very nervous to present our activity to unknown students and parents, but found it to be a very positive environment where students and parents worked together, experienced mathematics in many different settings, and had fun at the same time."

Anyone with further questions regarding the Riverdale math night may contact Grunow at (608) 342-1009 or grunowj@uwplatt.edu.

Contact: Jodean Grunow, UWP professor of mathematics, (608) 342-1009, grunowj@uwplatt.edu Formatted by: Ryan Broege, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, broeger@uwplatt.edu