Academic activities have been thrown into a disarray by the lockdown, but a good number of higher secondary mathematics teachers in the State are making the most of this period to advance MathsLab activities for students.
MathsLab was launched in the higher secondary section last year to exploit the possibilities of technology when presentation of concepts becomes abstract and imparting them in the classroom through activities proves a bit of a challenge. Rather than just talk about a concept, the focus is on students doing activities for getting a handle on them. To facilitate this, the free software GeoGebra is used in MathsLab.
Last summer, the State Council of Educational Research and Technology (SCERT) and the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) had conducted training for all Plus One maths teachers. Following this, Plus One students had taken part in MathsLab activities.
In Plus One, a minimum of eight of 16 labs from the textbook and in Plus Two 12 of the 24 labs have to be done. Each lab comprises two to three activities.
The Plus Two students also have to answer MathsLab questions to the tune of 40 marks from the forthcoming academic year as part of their evaluation.
The second year training for teachers was to be held this summer so as to familiarise them and, in turn, the students with the type of questions likely to be asked during the MathsLab evaluation. The lockdown, though, has led to adoption of creative ways to impart the training, says Sajeev C.S., a member of the core group.
First, WhatsApp groups of teachers are formed. Once the teachers go over one lab using the lab manual and the teachers’ handbook uploaded on the group, five questions that may require use of GeoGebra applets are given to them through Google Form along with a video on how to use the form.
The teachers are then given a day to solve the questions and send it to the core State Resource Group which then extracts the answers, and posts it on the group as a PDF file. Only after a brainstorming session between teachers is the answer key posted on the group along with detailed video support on how to derive the answers using GeoGebra and how these should be taught to the students, he says.
The training through WhatsApp groups was piloted in Thiruvananthapuram, and was so successful that it has been extended to 10 more districts. Each WhatsApp group has nearly 100 teachers. Besides giving teachers an idea of the questions to prepare students for the first-ever MathsLab examinations, the training is also expected to facilitate online preparation of the lab manual for Plus Two, says Mr. Sajeev.
