Makers at Mathfest

What would you expect at a conference called Mathfest? A lot of attire with equations, many books on display, some amazing mathematics-based art pieces, and one pair of makers with lots of math models to play with. That was the scene in Sacramento this week when we exhibited our Make: Math books and some of their associated 3D prints. The meeting, run by Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and attended by about 1,600 mathematicians and their friends, focuses each summer on comparing notes on ways to teach math, showcasing student work, and sharing research.

We enjoyed talking to one of the closer-to-maker organizations, the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival. They provide resources to create low-cost, hands-on math festivals full of puzzles and games — sort of like a micro-Makerfaire, but with all math. We had a great chat with Executive Director Daniel Kline, shown here at his booth, about learning math hands-on for fun. Check them out to see how to run your own festival (maybe as part of a school Maker Faire)!

They ran a little mini-festival at the conference,  and we were glad to try other people’s puzzles as a break from demonstrating ours. 

We were also glad to see open source projects, notably Ximera, a system for interactive sharing of math content in classrooms and beyond, based at Ohio State University. They are very focused on accessibility of math to all students, a perennial challenge particularly for visually-impaired students. Rich learned about their tools and we hope to use some of them in future math writing.

Although MAA is a national organization, there was a lot of attention on a California law that came into full effect over the last year or so, AB 1705. It requires STEM degree students to be placed into a calculus course very early in their college journey. The law reflects concern about how to bring less-prepared students up to speed without dragging out their college careers. But like all policy shifts, it is creating hard choices for professors and students: push students too fast and have them fail, or let them languish a long time repeating high school math. The failure rate in math classes remains very high, particularly in Calculus I – with completion with a C or better under 50% in many community colleges. A packed session discussing alternatives got very intense.

Universities are trying various things to improve matters. Our maker math approach seems a good fit for “co-requisite” courses, or support systems that are available to students in addition to the mainstream courses. But the system is so scaffolded that it is daunting to make substantive changes.

We believe that calculus concepts should be taught in elementary school, with LEGOs and 3D prints as we do in our Make: Calculus book. We got a mix of enthusiastic agreement and side-eye when we laid that on mathematicians and policymakers at Mathfest. Calculus is where math starts to be fun, and is tied tightly to how the world works. If students learned that up front as motivation, maybe other math along the way might feel more exciting. However, teaching it significantly earlier requires ways to teach calculus without upfront algebra (which does not preclude tying into algebra a little later, of course). Can hands-on learning and maker math have a role in improving Calculus I results? Time will tell. If you have thoughts, tag one of us in the Make: Discord channel!