Many have asked me where I get the ideas for my projects. Frankly, I don’t know. They come from all over. I have literally hundreds of ideas, but for me to get excited I have to find the perfect marriage between a math skill, a topic, and engaging presentation. When I finally am ready to start piecing things together, I use a variety of resources and one is NationMaster.
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| Cool Website |
As a teacher at an International High School, I strive to make more global projects. Whether it be through modeling with international data or diving deeply into an idea like a Solar Cooker in Africa or High Speed Rail in China, I feel its important to stretch our understanding of the world.
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| Look at how much soda we drink! |
When I was first asked to teach a globally competent curriculum, I’ll admit I had no idea what I was doing. Teaching topics in global issues can be an intimidating thing if we first are not students of the world. Every day our world is getting smaller and our classrooms are looking more and more diverse. NationMaster is a great step toward bridging a math teacher’s content comfort with their international comfort. On NationMaster, there is literally data for everything. Agriculture to Terrorism.
Teachers can pull real data sets for linear regression functions or for graphing. If student’s can’t identify Armenia as a country, have we failed them? Armenians certainly know where we are — and can speak English too. Using authentic international data not only makes your classroom more real and applicable, it helps your school’s mission to educate 21st Century Learners.
Check out some of my 21st Century Math Projects featuring International Themes!
