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If given the choice, most tamariki would probably choose to spend their school day in the playground rather than in the classroom. But what if we transformed the school playground into a learning resource for teachers and students? STEM Alliance visited Monte Cecilia Catholic School in Auckland's Mount Roskill to find out how.
Maths learning through movement and games
Gamification and game-based learning has become increasingly popular amongst STEM educators due to the way it can make learning more motivating and engaging. Research indicates that learning through movement is especially effective for Māori and Pacific learners. Rather than the working out of textbooks, Pacific students have identified their desire for challenging work, opportunities to do the work for themselves, and space and time to think.
Two years ago, Rachael Hill, Deputy Principal at Monte Cecilia Catholic School, created an action plan to address the declining maths achievement rates at the school. She identified gamification as a way to lift maths skills and change attitudes towards learning.
Co-designed and developed by The Open Fort, the school transformed their playground into a mathematics play space. The playground features include a 100 square, "human pegboard", compass and classic hopscotch.
There are many uses for the playground. For example, the simple 10x10 grid can be used as a giant game of snakes and ladders. The game is simple - roll a dice to move along the board, avoid the snakes and climb ladders. Maths can be easily included by giving the students maths challenges that they have to solve within a short time frame in order to avoid falling down the snake or to use the ladders.
It is early stages, and the winter weather doesn’t help, but teachers and students are already making great use of the Maths Playground.
The STEM Alliance team sat down with Deputy Principal, Rachael Hill, to hear about how this playground is transforming maths learning at the school.
Q: Where did the idea for the Maths Playground come from?
A: This came from research; specifically looking at how Pasifika students learn best – through authentic learning contexts, interactive activities, movement and fun. The idea was to incorporate resources that we use in the classroom to teach mathematical concepts such as number lines, hundreds squares, place value charts etc., but with the flexibility to change the numbers on them so they could be used in multiple ways.
Q: What’s been your favourite part about putting this playground together?
A: Working through the process of ideation, development and installation. We also love getting ideas from others on how it can be used and seeing the students enjoying the maths we do on it. I have already seen a student who has struggled to learn concepts in maths in the past, come back week to week retaining the concepts from one week to the next.
Q: What’s been the most enjoyable activity for the students?
A: They have loved playing Battleships on the large grid and also Snakes and Ladders. They love using it – especially when they think it is just playing and not really ‘maths’!
Q: Do you have plans to transform other spaces in your school, or expand this playground?
A: Not specifically for the use of Maths but yes, we are now working on other areas of our playground to make them more interactive. What’s great, also, is that whanau can use these public spaces as well. We have already had a successful whanau evening where parents took part in some of our playground games and heard about how these relate to maths learning.
Q: How has your experience been working with industry professionals like The Open Fort on this project?
A: Excellent! Toby and his team listened well to our ideas and needs and designed something even more than we first envisaged, and it was such a great experience too.
So what do the students think?
STEM Alliance project manager Sneh Patel met with some of the young students who have been using the courts for their learning. Of the eight students she talked to, they all identified the importance of maths for their future learning and shared their enjoyment of learning the times tables, in particular.
The students pegged their enjoyment of maths to two things – one was their kind in-class maths teacher, whilst the other was the use of the new Maths Playground with Mrs Hill. They found the playground particularly helpful because when something was hard, they were less likely to give up on the game they were playing. They also liked the physical nature of it, being able to count and walk along five squares helped them visualise their additions and subtractions.
One thing they all agreed on? That last year, maths was boring and hard and this year, maths is fun!
Want to learn more?
There are many ways in which STEM learning can be made innovative and fun for our tamariki. Check out these other examples of ways gamification has been used to teach STEM concepts:
Game-based resources that can be applied and used in the classroom.
Kiwibank’s Banquer app, a financial literacy resource for tauira in Aotearoa
Hack fests are an easy way to make STEM learning accessible by creating real-world problems that students can solve with real-world solutions and ideas.
More about The Open Fort
The Open Fort are creativity experts. They use creative insights, experience and extensive networks to devise workshops, activations, activities and tools to create fresh, meaningful and fun experiences that push creative boundaries. To find out more, visit www.theopenfort.com
References:
J. Playfoot (2016) Exploring The Role Of Gamification Within Stem Teaching As A Mechanism To Promote Student Engagement, Develop Skills And Ultimately Improve Learning Outcomes For All Types Of Students, Edulearn16 Proceedings, Pp. 2140-2147.
O. Rojas, M. Elizabeth, Et Al. (2016) “Gamification In Higher Education And STEM : A Systematic Review Of Literature.” Edulearn16: 8th International Conference On Education And New Learning Technologies, Iated-Int Assoc Technology Education A& Development, 2016, Pp. 6548–58, doi:10.21125/edulearn.2016.0422.
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