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Playfully mathe-magic
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Mathematics is no longer boring jugglery of numbers and formulae in Sri Venkateswara Balakuteer at Guntur. Thanks to M-Net, it is livelier than chemistry laboratory, says RAMESH SUSARLA.
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LEARNING MATHEMATICS is a nightmarish experience for many students in their school days, with a stick-wielding teacher trying to get the basics registered correctly in their tender minds. Beginning with the addition, subtraction, and multiplication in the Kindergarten to the complex algebraic formulae in the school-final, coming to terms with those numbers is a monstrous assignment.
The innovative mind of the founder-secretary, Nannapaneni Mangadevi, prompted the mathematics faculty of Sri Venkateswara Balakuteer to design a mathematics laboratory to conduct practical classes for 20 students of any standard at a time from the beginners to those appearing for school final. Christened `M-Net - The World of Mathematics' it is the most colourful room in the school making others envious of the mathematics department: considered to be the most drab one.
Inaugurated recently, students of Balakuteer will have a practical class in mathematics also in addition to science subjects like physics, chemistry and life sciences. Counting numbers on fingers or finger joints is the traditional method of solving the problems involving small additions and subtractions at the lower classes, but to get the mental ability to process these in the mind, regular drilling is the most essential part of learning mathematics, which Jayashree, principal of the school, finds lacking among children these days.
An articulate teacher herself, Ms. Jayashree, transformed the concept of playful drill in mathematics into reality in a limited space of 12 feet X 12 feet with her creativity, ably assisted by the mathematics team. Every inch of the wall, roof and floor of the laboratory has been put to use, while making it visually attractive. A life-sized Zebra painted on the wall at the entrance attracts the youngest and the eldest student alike. While for a beginner it is `Z' for zebra and beginning his count of animals on the walls with one, there is much to read in between lines for the grown-ups. Zebra having a similarity in pronunciation with algebra in mathematics has a number of formulae like: (a+b)2 = a2+b2+2ab; and (a+b)3 = a3+b3+3ab (a+b) painted on the white stripes of the zebra. Students play `Snake and Ladder' in the `World of Mathematics' for recreation. Who does not like? But wait. They are not wasting their time. It is no ordinary `snake and ladder' game. It is `DMAS Board' though none of the components of the traditional one is missing.
Conceptually, a great creation, this provides a strong footing in the basics of mathematics by providing them a drill in the correct serial (BODMAS concept) to be followed in solving mathematical equations. During the game when a player throws a dice, he has to either add, deduct or multiply the number, where his coin is positioned with the number of the dice to get an answer that matches with either an increase in total number denoted by a ladder or decrease depicted by snakes. To explain the angle of elevation a boy and tree are painted on the wall with the boy looking up to sight a bird sitting on one of the branches.
As soon as a kindergarten student looks up the tree, he finds a few stars and some mathematical signs in the sky. The roof of the laboratory acts as a picture book example in the basic addition and subtraction. Siddharth, a visitor on the opening day drew attention of his father to explain him as to why there were two stars at one place, five at another and seven preceded by the `Equal to' (=) sign. Do I need to explain any further? Pythagoras theorem, Thales' Proportionality Theory are some of the advanced mathematical concepts made simple enough to make even a layman understand them. Need I reproduce them here after Amulya, Gayatri and Sri Nikhila's lucid explanation? They are so simple! A mathematical playpen is the centre of attraction with ordinary Abacus, a Teacher's Abacus, counting in ascending and descending order along steps forming part of it.
A `Mathematics Student' wearing school uniform but having his body parts -- head, legs, hands, in different geometrical shapes like a cube, cylinder, triangle, etc. Quiz boards in `Equivalent fractions', missing numbers, measure of time, matching different types of polygons are meant for students of all standards -- a true world of mathematics.
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Metro Plus
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