'Mixing in Math' Takes Informal Math to the Library
February 18, 2010
The public library as a perfect venue for math learning? That is exactly what librarians across the nation are discovering, thanks to TERC’s Mixing in Math (also known as the “Math off the Shelf”) project. Over several afternoons and evenings in December, groups of parents and elementary-age children flocked to the Lynn Public Library, the Lawrence Public Library, and the Waltham Public Library for Mixing in Math activities in Spanish. TERC’s Spanish-speaking facilitators and children’s librarians introduced several activities and then encouraged groups of youngsters and their parents to engage in them—by playing estimation and logic games; creating patterns involving letters and words; and building towers of boxes and yogurt containers to measure height. If the frequent laughter and concentrated engagement of the families proved an indication, it was clear from these outreach events that math could be easily and interactively implemented into a variety of informal settings and languages—by teachers as diverse as children’s librarians and parents.
TERC initiated Mixing in Math (MiM) in 2004, to help informal educators integrate math into what they already do with children in the elementary grades. Initially, MiM focused on meeting the needs of after-school providers—developing, testing, and evaluating the impact of math activities that they could use as part of gym games, cooking projects, crafts, and social activities. Over time, the MiM group at TERC extended their approach to meet the needs of child-care providers and parents, and in 2008—public librarians. In this latest effort, the MiM group has been collaborating with public library networks in Massachusetts; Connecticut; Queens, New York; Westchester County, New York; St. Louis, Missouri and San Jose, California. The project has been producing math activities and games that children’s librarians use as part of story times, family events, summer reading programs, and displays. Many of the materials are available in both English and Spanish, to insure that the many native Spanish-speaking families in these regions are able to fully engage with math. The MiM group has been assisting in the training and support of the librarians in the integration of project materials. And the librarians themselves have had overwhelmingly positive experiences with reception for the activities.
The Waltham Public Library’s Children’s Department Head Librarian Nancy Rea has been working with MiM for two years, after hearing that colleagues at the Newton and Framingham public libraries were involved. Rea says, “the Mixing in Math activities provide nice, easy ways to facilitate math; they are the backdrop to make math interesting for kids”. She continues “they [the activities] are great for a library setting because they make math a very visual and tangible part of the reading landscape—especially in recent years, publishers have been very aware of making math learning and books about math more attractive and accessible.” A walk through the Waltham Public Library reveals several MiM posters, each with a math-related question such as “How many rectangles can you find on the wall?” and “How many legs in the room?” and a set of MiM calendars in English and Spanish, which Rea notes have been especially popular. Rea frequently sets up MiM’s Mystery Jars as a table-top activity. In this activity, library patrons view two jars, one filled with large objects (such as big pom-poms, bottle caps, or pasta shells) and one with smaller versions of the same objects. The task is to use information on the number filling the large jar to estimate how many in the smaller one—and to record your reasoning for other library patrons to see.
Theresa Hurley, Head of the Children’s Department, has been at the Lynn Public Library for 14 years. In the year since she began using MiM, she has hosted several family nights and days devoted solely to MiM. At these events, she has offered children and their parents stations at which they can try MiM activities including “Double or More”, which entails making twice or four times a recipe for play dough; “How Many in a Minute”—estimating, then timing and counting how many stars can be drawn in a minute—or how many jumping jacks can be completed; “Giant Museum”, or making a “giant size” scale drawing of a penny, stamp, or other small object; and “Mystery Jars.” She says the reception of families to the Mixing in Math activities is “very good; they really enjoy the activities and use them frequently, and I do too!” These events draw patrons from the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking communities in Lynn—since MiM provides many of its activities in both languages.
Solanyi Munoz, Children’s Librarian at the Lawrence Public Library, has been using the activities in library programming for a bit over a year. She is especially drawn to the MiM crafts activities, such as “Make Your Own Mystery Jar,” in which children sort, count, and measure materials as they create “Mystery Jars” to engage their friends and family in estimation. She notes that, “kids seem to react to the activities with a sense of wonder. They will then ask their parents questions, and their parents can get involved with their children’s math learning. I think this is very important.” She continued “I think the Mixing in Math program is great, because most kids react to the stigma of doing “math” and think that it’s not fun. … Mixing in Math helps kids to reframe their ideas of what math is and really see math as fun.”
To learn more about MiM and to explore MiM activities yourself, check out the new MiM site at http://mixinginmath.terc.edu.
