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Why Focus on Math?

Have you ever missed a few days of school only to come back realize you missed a lecture covering a fundamental concept? The confusion and stress you feel before catching up can be a year-long reality for math students struggling with principal concepts. Contemporary education methods often fail to provide kids with an adequate visual and spatial understanding of mathematical concepts. Since math is a subject that grows upon itself, learning these concepts is vital.

We believe that a new system of understanding math would benefit each student in their continued education. So, how might we design a more visual and hands-on approach to teaching fundamental math concepts like elementary algebra?

Initial Outreach

Initially, we surveyed 21 students and 19 teachers.

From teacher surveys, basic algebra and fractions were mentioned frequently as problem areas. We focused on algebra since our partner team focused on fractions. When thinking about a solution, the needs of students we were designing for was paramount. In our survey, 52% of students said they were visual learners and an additional 24% said they were tactile learners. Based on those results, we wanted our design to be a hands-on device that makes the visualization process easier.

Testing Process

We did multiple rounds of testing with our pretotypes and one with a prototype.

From the pretotype testing, we learned things like:

It’s easier for kids to intuitively use foam ball design
Pieces should be color-coded because “color is a huge sell” – Mr. Malc, pre-algebra teacher
Kids prefer columns of 5 instead of 6 for easier visual grouping
Spherical pieces are easy to lose and hard to grasp

From the prototype testing, we learned things like:

Kids are easily able to interpet what the board means given the placement of the pieces
The software component is a big pro for students
Kids enjoy playing with the board in order to solve the equation

Using the feedback from testing we refined our prototype design into the Moveable Math board

How it Works

Students start with the pieces and place them in the columns on the board

Columns are wired in parallel, so as the pieces are added, the resistors embedded in the pieces change the voltage across a reference resistor

The reference voltage is read by an Arduino through analog input pins

This data is sent to the computer through the Serial port, and an equation that mirrors the actions of the students is displayed through a Graphical User Interface that is coded in Python

To explore how our code works, please visit our GitHub repo!

Metrics of Success

Students Enjoy Using It

Achieved

When asked if they enjoyed using Moveable Math, a large majority of the students gave positive feedback.

In our final round of testing, 16 out of 21 or 76 % of students said they either liked or loved using Moveable Math compared to how much they love playing their favorite game.

Effective at Helping Students Learn Concepts

Unknown

This goal can only be achieved through testing on human participants, which requires the approval of an Institutional Review Board. With the given time constraints, we were unable to go through this approval and research process.

Aligns with Common Core Standards

Achieved

Common Core standards our board can help with

Grade 3: Solve two-step word problems using the four operations

Grade 4: Solve problems with whole numbers using the four basic operations

Grade 6: Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for numbers

Grade 6: Solve one-variable inequalities

Portable

Achieved

To be considered portable, we wanted our design to be no larger than 16 inches diagonally. A normal laptop has a 15.6 inch diagonal screen length and most backpacks can easily fit something of this size. We rounded that value up for simplicity.

Moveable Math’s board dimensions are 13″ x 9.4″ x 0.50″ with a diagonal length of 16″

Additionally, we included a carrying case with a handle that can fit the board and all its pieces.

Adaptable

Achieved

Moveable Math can be used for a variety of algebraic problems including, but not limited to:

Two-step word problems
Problems using basic combinations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
Solving inequalities

Additionally, each student has the ability to arrange the board in a way that makes sense to them. The pieces have no set location, so a student can set the equation up in whatever way they “see” the problem. Each template can also be written on with dry-erase markers, so the teacher can customize it to their liking.

Next Steps

Get IRB approval to research the device’s efficacy
Improve the adaptability of our board by expanding its usefulness to fractions/decimals
Align with Common Core standards relating to fractions and decimals
Improve the wiring and connections on the board
Improve the software so that it can differentiate between various pieces

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Samosky and the Art of Making teaching assistant team for all their guidance with this project. A special thank you to Mr. Sundgren and his 3rd grade class for testing our prototypes. Additional thanks to our teacher experts, Mrs. Franny Tan, Ms. Hutchins, and Mr. Malc for taking the time to give us feedback.