Challenges & Strategies

Challeges:

Facing the issues of evaluation methodology on youth outcomes;
"It is difficult to measure academic achievement merely based on the scores."
Managing caregivers and volunteers in order to keep the program sustainable
Continuously updating and examining web content and URLs used as the Internet-based activities
Integrating web content that does not perfectly match with the hands-on activities
Improving staff skills and increasing confidence in instructional strategies of volunteers who do not have a background in education. Training is necessary.
Persuading program facilitators who distrust games and websites as educational materials

Design math curriculum integrated with the guidelines and resources from the Department of Education's Content Standards. more
Blend hands-on learning with Internet-based activities. more
Review games and websites, and evaluate the quality of resources based on staff expertise. Combine high-quality web content with relevant off-line activities. more
Design math activities that increase critical-thinking abilities and problem-solving skills. Use open-ended puzzles and games that guide youth in thinking about different solutions. more
Divide the participants into small learning groups to accelerate learning. more
Evaluate youth outcomes based on confidence and interest in learning math. Conduct surveys with educators and youth with the help of an evaluation specialist. more

Design math curriculum integrated with the guidelines and resources from the Department of Education's Content Standards.

"The Content Standards, in an ideal way, really provide us with nice structures in order to be able to plan and implement the content-rich program. Responding to our primary goal, which is the youth's academic achievement, our multiple staff members developed the math curriculum collaboratively with school educators and specialists based on the academic standards. All of the activities were constructed with our knowledge of Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards (NCTM). We also extracted necessary concepts and learning exercises appropriate to grade levels from both the recent relevant math literature and our prior experiences in working with a variety of educational technologies."

Blend hands-on learning with Internet-based activities.

"The participants of our after-school program work with technology neither in a guided way nor necessarily as formal learning. They learn math through hands-on activities that direct technology experiences. Blend both activities to become a part of the same lesson. Blended-learning is necessary because we believe that youth learn more effectively when they find their interests in learning through informal hands-on experiences. As time goes on, the young people will find better opportunities in formal learning after knowing that math is fun and interesting to them. Technology helps educators and youth have so much fun interacting with each other and helps them realize that learning is taking place through these blended learning activities. Educators should be able to help our participants not only learn basic computer skills and improve their understanding of the ability of the web, but also, ultimately guide them to find out what opportunities on the Internet can help promote effective math learning."

Review games and websites, and evaluate the quality of resources based on staff expertise. Combine high-quality web content with relevant off-line activities.

"For example, look at teacher's edition books and the Content Standards to discover structured math curricula well-suited to your program goals. Second, start with topics that are appropriate to the characteristics of your participants. Third, go online and search for quality web content, either educational games or websites, which include extensive resources. You can follow the same procedure in reverse because both hands-on and Internet-based activities are profoundly integrated. If it is challenging to find online activities that exactly match the hands-on activities, start with identifying Internet-based activities first. Research educational web content using an Internet search engine. Second, choose games or websites as varied as you can, play and evaluate them. As you play the games, you will be able to select content that is educational as well as fun and visually appealing. While referring to teacher's edition books, design hands-on activities based on the web resources that you found. In this process, technology takes more of the central stage. Always make sure that the web content that you find exists over time. Consistently refresh and update these resources."

Design math activities that increase critical-thinking abilities and problem-solving skills. Use open-ended puzzles and games that guide youth in thinking about different solutions.

"Set all of the activities as open-ended puzzles or games that augment the critical thinking capacity of the participants. Provide youth with an environment where there is more than one possible answer to a question and more than one possible route to solve the problem. This allows youth to test out many potential solutions as they attempt to solve the problem or win the game. In addition, the enjoyment factor encourages the participants to play a game again or try to solve the puzzle again, allowing them to re-test and refine their solutions. One of the general goals of the activities is math in everyday life, being able to see math every day. Once youth find enjoyment in math, they are better able to develop organizational, sequential- and logical-thinking skills that they can use in diverse situations. An exemplary activity is learning how to create and balance a reasonable budget."

Divide the participants into small learning groups to accelerate learning.

"To maintain quality, assign a maximum of ten participants to a group for the hands-on activities. Group the participants into groups as small as possible for the Internet-based activities depending on equipment in your lab. Design group activities that give each participant an opportunity to play a significant role. Then, these experiences become valuable for everyone."

Evaluate youth outcomes based on confidence and interest in learning math. Conduct surveys with educators and youth with the help of an evaluation specialist.

"Youth who have participated in Project ACCELERATE showed us their increased skills and confidence with math. Seventy-four percent of the children surveyed reported that they learned new things with mathematics, such as fractions, how to compare and add, how to multiply better, and how to count money and give the correct amount. To get these kinds of results, invite an evaluation expert who can thoroughly conduct research on youth outcomes. For our program, a member of the university faculty visited our participating schools and observed the young people working on both the hands-on and computer activities. The evaluation specialist designed surveys for the participants and shared the findings with us. After carefully studying and considering the findings, we were able to make adjustments to Project ACCELERATE that has resulted in greater program success. For example, after we realized that the participants found difficulties in typing long website addresses, we bookmarked the URLs and added the links to our website so the participants can easily find the computer games that correspond to a particular hands-on kit."