Golden autumn season saw our month-long American Carnival come to a close. Our math team carried out Problem Based Learning (PBL) activities designed to help students experience the Americas from a Math perspective and take them on a journey through culture in food, clothing, housing, and transportation. The aim was to expand our students’ understanding of human society. As our students worked on their projects, our math teachers were there to guide and support student collaboration through the overall learning process.
‘Clothing’in the Americas–The Beauty of Math in Clothing
Our first-graders opened the American Carnival show. Their performance centered on a cross-cultural exploration of America and themed Math Clothing. First-graders began with an exploration into American Indian culture which gradually brought in mathematical elements as their performance continued. Students even designed and presented their own eagle feather crowns! Such a performance not only made such a fantastic opening, it also helped strengthen our first-graders mathematical knowledge in design and technology as well as improving their ability in areas of cooperation and inquiry. The teachers were extremely proud of them for their creativity! Let’s be expectant of what surprises they will bring to us in next year’s Intercontinental Carnival!
‘Cuisine’in the Americas– A Bite of the Americas!
The theme of the Grade Two was ‘American Cuisine – A bite of the Americas’. Our second-grade students learnt about the food, history, humanities, climate, geographical and gastronomic characteristics of the Americas. Here PBL focused on American food but with a mathematics focus. Grade two students first searched for relevant information about American cuisine, collected data, and then tried to cook an American dish. Students were able to experience Mexican fruit tacos, Latin American dumplings, American cheese oatmeal, and many other types of American cuisine. Students then gave presentations of their recipes and tips for making food. Lastly, each student voted for the most popular American food in their class and therefore consolidating their knowledge of statistics. Throughout this experience students developed their skills in the areas of cooperation and collaboration. Undoubtedly, they have gathered greater insight into the Americas.
‘Entertainment’ in the Americas –– Significance in Dates
Our third-grade children focused on the theme ‘Having fun in the Americas – Significance in Dates’. Here students learned about festivals in the Americas. They were able to reinforce their understanding of the concept of a year, month, and day. Our third graders PBL focused on making a poster, analyzing different time zones as well as exploring the background cultural stories behind different festivals and comparing them with festivals in China. By doing this, students fostered a stronger understanding of international culture.
‘Adventure’in the Americas — Travel the Americas by Big Data
In Grade four, students were encouraged to observe, explore, and apply Mathematical concepts to life. Beginning with the Carnival Inquiry Project, Grade four Math teachers guided students to collate, organize and analyze data from various countries in the Americas. These steps helped to develop our grade four students’ ability to analyze data and establish connections between different data sets. One of the main conclusions drawn from their analysis was that transportation is indispensable and that some percentage of the population across a range of countries even displayed personalised license plates.
As we all know!
‘Consuming’ in the Americas – Saving Energy Plan
Our fifth-grade students learned about energy in the Americas from historical events, achievements, and data-drive perspectives. Students conducted a thorough investigation into energy conservation. After investigating the electricity consumption of classrooms, corridors, gym and other places, students implemented and optimized energy-saving measures. Finally, students implemented their idea of power-saving measures into the ‘Campus Saving Energy Plan’.
Students of all levels participated in mathematical projects themed in the American Carnival. The final products were research reports and work designs. This is a way of contextualizing the learning environment and combining what they have learned in class with real-life scenarios, where students could work together to solve real-life problems. Meanwhile, through the process of inquiry, students had a better understanding of the development and change of human society from the perspective of ‘food, clothing, housing and transportation’.