Tasks from youcubed

The main goal of the project, “is to inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on math learning into accessible and practical forms.” The site provides research-based methods, tasks, videos, and ideas which aim to inspire teachers and empower students.

Author(s) Organizational Affiliation
http://preview.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/factsh/english-literacy-education.pdf
Publication Year
2015
Resource Type
Instructional Material
Product Type
Abstract

Youcubed is a project of Stanford University, Graduate School of Education. The main goal of the project, “is to inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on math learning into accessible and practical forms.” The site provides research-based methods, tasks, videos, and ideas which aim to inspire teachers and empower students.

The youcubed tasks have been gathered from a variety of highly reputable sources including mathematics teachers, publishers, and curriculum writers from organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Each discrete instructional task is tagged by--

  • Mathematical concept(s) which includes: space and shape, pattern recognition, generalization, modeling, shapes and space, and number sense
  • Mathematical topic(s) which includes algebra, surface area, counting, and ratios
  • K-12 grade level
  • Standards for Mathematical Practice(s) 1-8

It is possible to search for tasks that relate to any of these variables. Each task includes full instructions, handouts where appropriate, and a task discussion option.

Benefits and Uses

The tasks are interesting and engaging and connected to the Standards for Mathematical Practice. While focused at K-12, the tasks are, for the most part, applicable to adult education classrooms. Some tasks may require adaptations for the adult audience.

The tasks are reliable, free tools for instructors to use in overcoming several barriers to learning mathematics that adult students may bring with them to the classroom. These include mathematics anxiety, low self-efficacy in mathematics ability, learning limitations that come with aging, and fixed mindset beliefs.

The tasks complement a traditional mathematics curriculum. The actual tasks are intended to be engaging activities that require students to actively participate and work together. In the activities, students are actively involved in trying to score points, win a challenge, or accomplish a larger goal. They involve finding patterns, or attempting a strategy, or developing reasoning to solve a problem.

The tasks use the common notation (for example, “MP.2”) to link to the Mathematical Practices employed in a task although it is not always made clear how the task accomplishes this connection to the identified standards. Each task also has a discussion group link which can be used to pose questions or raise issues in connection to the individual tasks.

The tasks contain all of the information that is required to complete a task including an opening page that provides directions for starting the task, additional resources that help implement the task and handouts where appropriate.

Teachers are able to use the search options described in the abstract above to choose the tasks that are most appropriate for their students. 

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