TEFP1010
TEFP1010
Sue Davison - Ruislip High School, Ruislip, Middlesex
To develop cross-curricular approaches for the learning and
teaching of mathematics through a go-kart building and racing
club involving technology, science and mathematics.
1. Summary
“I was rubbish at maths when I was at school” is a common comment heard by maths
teachers from many people they meet in life. So our initial aim with the project was to
raise the profile of maths in school so it becomes fun, useful, challenging but not ‘too
hard’.
We run a club for Year 9 students in which they are building a go-kart (we bought the
chassis as a starting point) and they will race it (endurance rather than speed!) at
events run by Greenpower. It is essential that the students see the links between
science, technology and maths for the project to really succeed (and if they win a race
that would be good too!).
We found that when compared to a ‘formal’ lesson context. Students were more
resilient, more creative, more able to transfer skills between different subject areas, and
more able to work collaboratively and in a team. The learning observed was not only of
a higher level than we expected but also appeared ‘deeper’ (observed by the ability of
the students to willingly and subconsciously transfer knowledge and skills between
subjects).
2. Research aims
We are aiming to develop several aspects of teaching through a go-kart building and
racing club.
The main learning and teaching model would be social, whereby learners collaborate
and learn together, incorporating group problem solving with a constructivist approach.
We would use some cognitive teaching and learning models to help learners process
information, build concepts and rules, generate and test hypotheses and think
creatively, including enquiry. Although these learning and teaching models are already
practised in school, we would like to develop them further especially in mathematics
and science. Teachers involved in the project would develop their teaching pedagogy
by both observing and involvement in the cross-curricular project.
3. Context
It is well-known that Vygotsky (1978) claimed that social interaction is important in
learning and that learning alone is not as successful. The main point of this project is
that it is hoped that students will learn some mathematics in this way that will be ‘deep’
learning; that students will help each other through the ‘zone of proximal development’
(the difference between what someone can do with and without help). Despite the
impact of the National Strategies, I still observe a lot of ‘individual’ learning and, even in
classrooms where students ‘work in pairs’ they are often simply ‘working alongside’
each other, not earning interactively from each other.
Johnson and Johnson (1989) said that collaborative work in small groups helped
develop ‘higher order’ skills due to the talking and associated thinking, but only if certain
elements were included such as students feeling that success depends on whether
they work together, face-to-face positive interaction, individual and group accountability,
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interpersonal skills and group processing (reflection of their performance and how to
improve).
4. Your research approach
The study took place in school as an extra-curricular club which started during the
summer of 2010 and is currently still running. The go-kart will be taken to races
organised by Greenpower (an educational organisation that aims to advance education
in the subjects of sustainable engineering and technology to young people. This is
achieved through unique hands-on projects to design, build and race an electric car)
during the summer term 2011. Twelve students from year 9 (boys and girls) are taking
part. The three of us (myself, the DT teacher and the physics teacher who have set up
the club) have observed the students working together with teachers and technicians.
Areas observed include curiosity, resilience, collaborative learning, transfer of skills
(from other subjects), teamwork.
The data was analysed both numerically and non-numerically; a simple tick box was
used to count (for example when observing curiosity) the number of questions asked by
students about something unfamiliar to them, “What is this used for?” “How does this
make that’s work?”. Resilience was measured by observing one student at a time
working on something that proved difficult. The data was then compared to data
collected in a ‘formal’ design technology lesson where an electrical circuit was being
built by students.
5. What happened?
The study has gone well, but due to the late arrival of the go-kart kit, our time-line has
not been adhered to. At the current time, the main structure of the go-kart has been
built but the battery has not been added.
In terms of observations, the table shows the data recorded while observing a go-kart
session and the afore-mentioned DT lesson on electrical circuit building: (observations
done by myself and 4 students not involved in go-kart club)
Go-kart session
DT lesson on circuit building
Curiosity (number of
18
11
questions asked)
Resilience (total length of
35mins
12min
time spent on difficult task
(ie task that could not be
completed first time))
Collaborative learning
18
4
(number of interactions
where one or more students
worked together)
Transfer of skills (number of 6
0
comments where another
subject is mentioned)
Team work (observations of At all times there was some
During parts of the lesson,
all twelve students working
teamwork taking place
students were helping each
together)
other, mostly by actually
‘doing the circuit’ for their
peer.
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Looking at the data above and additional observation notes, it is evident that
students were more curious, resilient, better at collaboration and teamwork, and
were transferring knowledge from different subjects into the project. Obviously other
variables come into this, such as enthusiasm for the go-kart building project,
especially with the incentive of entering it for races. Also the club is extra-curricular,
hence a certain amount of interest is naturally included, whereas in a lesson the
students have no choice.
It was interesting to observe that the students were asking very good quality
questions, and were extremely determined to make things work (resilient), and no
competition between students was observed at all (collaboration and teamwork).
The knowledge that the project can work only if the students work together was
apparent.
The potential that the students showed in all the above attributes, shows that we
can elicit a higher level of these attributes in our normal lesson teaching, as
students do possess the skills.
(photos in ‘Additional information’)
6. What have you and your colleagues learned from the project, in relation to
your focus and more generally?
We learned that the attributes we were observing (resilience, collaboration, teamwork,
curiosity and skills transfer), are possessed by students. Without the constraints of
narrow objectives, limited routes available to get to lesson outcomes, discouragement
of curiosity, limited opportunities for students to work together (as opposed to
‘alongside each other’), time constraints that demand that we get a certain activity
‘done’ in a certain time, thus not allowing students to keep trying, we found that
students are learning, really deep learning, that has allowed thus far, the very calm,
smooth sessions building the go-kart. The students are not gifted and talented, and
indeed 3 of the 12 students are from the lowest ability maths and science groups,
In my experience, the main issue has been about risk-taking. We take risks with ‘good’
classes and these students receive an excellent enriching learning experience. We tend
not to take risks with more challenging classes as we worry about health and safety,
poor behaviour, no learning taking place, students ‘opting out’ of the lesson, as they are
not being ‘watched’ in the same way………
We need to plan as a whole school, a way of introducing small projects involving the
attributes that we have discussed. We need to learn to trust students, to motivate them
and encourage their independence. I would recommend that this is done as a whole
school and with a cross-curricular approach. We cannot get away from the constraints
of the school curriculum and I am not saying that a flexible curriculum (as primary
schools have) is the way forward; simply that the attributes we have studied in this
project are skills for life and will certainly improve students’ learning, and need to be
built into lessons.
7. Impact
As a result of the project I am proposing that the funding I receive for the Maths and
Computing Specialism (which is being devolved in a different way due to the funding
changes) be used for a study of ‘teaching and learning’ in our school. We are a new
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school (in our fifth year) and have a very skilled, enthusiastic team of teachers. At our
Policy group meetings we will develop an action plan to incorporate the learning
gleaned from the go-kart project across the school. Maths will be a main focus as I
strongly believe the attitude to maths still requires changing (although students are far
less negative to it than in previous years, parents still seem happy to tell us that it was
their worse subject and that they ‘could never do it’). I will propose that we start with
Year 7, on a project that involves constructing something (similar to the go-kart project)
that involves all Year 7 teachers and students. We will encourage parents to become
involved, but realistically in a secondary school, this is a challenge.
8. Advice to teachers who may want to try something similar:
Contact me for further details about the project. I will aim to update the blog with the
progress on our project, especially when we race the go-kart.
Main advice:
1) Select staff based on their interests – I knew which staff would enjoy the go-kart
project, so for them it is not a ‘drag’ – they absolutely love it.
2) Select students who will be enthusiastic, or a year group that is easy to
motivate.
3) Research organisations that may give you funding (ask your local subject
advisers if they know any possible sources)
4) Take lots of photos – students love having photos taken
5) Carry out the project in a ‘public’ place – this will encourage interest from other
students – curiosity.
Make sure the staff are as involved as the students – be there every week, be nice, be
interested, be patient!
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