MANSFIELD, Ohio — Springmill Learning Center’s Math Literacy Initiative (MLI) camp is winding down for the week, but more is to come, said Content and Administrative Expert Meg Strong.
Monday began the learning center’s five-day long math camp for Mansfield City School students from kindergarten to fifth grade. On July 27, Clear Fork elementary schools will send their youth and Lucas elementary schools will send their students on Aug. 3.
According to Strong, 122 students came through Springmill Learning Center’s doors for the math camp this week.
For two years, the Ohio Board of Regents has funded the MLI’s professional development aspect of the camp. From July 13 to 17, teachers observed the lessons happening in each classroom. They made notes and evaluated them and made adjustments to each day’s lessons and activities. Clear Fork schools were added to the grant program this year, said MLI Co-Director and associate professor for mathematics at OSU-Mansfield Terri Bucci.
This year, a group of Mansfield Senior high school seniors from the Young People’s Project (YPP) joined the MLI camp. They worked alongside OSU-Mansfield students, who helped facilitate math oriented games. Bucci defined the interaction as “near-peer mentoring.”
“So there’s learning going on on multiple levels,” said Bucci. “It’s cool to see it in the teachers, too, because they’ll come in and not like math. And then they’ll go out and they’re like, ‘Oh, well this is totally different,’” said Bucci.
The camp’s lessons derived from the Algebra Project, a national nonprofit founded in 1982. The organization aims at empowering youth to demand a thorough understanding of math terms and concepts.
Mansfield City Schools has implemented Algebra Project principles and teaching styles since 2008. According to Bucci, test scores for math have increased since then.
“No one would ever walk up to you and say, ‘I’m just not good at reading. I don’t get it.’ No one would ever say that. But they say it about math, so we’re trying to change that cultural aspect,” said Bucci.
Strong said the activities of this year’s MLI camp centered on algebraic thinking. “We try and do a lot of games, things to make it fun. A lot of times you hear people say they hate math. We want them to have fun with math.”
