Trailblazers - Articles

Mathematics can be implemented into many different areas of the world, like: stores, prices, outdoors, collecting data, etc. This article discusses the different ways that educators have implemented different mathematical skills and learning examples into the great outdoors. When students are engaged in something that is related to the real world (real world situations) the students have a better understanding and grasp more out of what they are learning. The trails that are talked about in this article present many different tasks that teachers can present to students. For example, trails display different sequences that students could pick up on and need to draw or develop into a mathematical problem.

Also discussed in the article was how the students were creating their own trails that would be walked at a later date in the semester. I found this to be quite interesting because the students would be in charge of every piece of their trail. They would create the directions used and how many steps walked would need to take place. The students were also aware of the different shapes that were around them and had to measure them to in different ways.

English, L. D., Humble, S., & Barnes, V. E. (2010). Trailblazers. Teaching children mathematics 16 (7), 402-410.