The Press of Atlantic City
Monday, September 14, 1998

Our Schools, Diane D'Amico

A weekly column on the people, programs and policies shaping education in southern New Jersey.

Wanted: Parents as math FANS

"For $1.19 I went out and bought a handheld calculator that does 90 percent of what we learn in elementary school, " said Warren Crown, professor of mathematics at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Education.

Crown was explaining why there's really no point in just teaching children to do "what a calculator can do faster and probably more accurately."

What schools today must do, Crown said, is teach children to identify and solve increasingly complex problems using technology.

Crown teaches teachers to teach math. He's also one of the authors of the 667-page state math curriculum "framework" that details how math should be taught to meet the new New Jersey standards for what students should know.

The effort does not end in school.

The New Jersey Math Coalition is also looking for FANS -- Families Achieving the New Standards in Math, Science and Technology Education. The FANS Project's goal is to sponsor 10,000 workshops for 300,000 parents over the next three years.

The 95-minute workshops include a videotape on the state's standards and how parents can help children achieve them. Parents also get to do some of the hands-on activities their children do in class.

"Technology is changing the way we teach math and science, "Crown said. "We need to explain the new vision. Parents also need to understand the importance of math and science in their lives, in terms of salaries and employability."

Many parent workshops will be held at schools, but some are also planned for the general community.

Marilyn Ferguson, a teacher and director of the Arts and Science Academy in Galloway Township, underwent the FANS leadership training last summer and will offer three programs in Atlantic County.

"Math just doesn't look the same now as it did for the parents," she said. "It's more hands on. A lot of times parents will see what the children are doing and say, 'Oh, that's just playing.' They think if the children are having a good time they can't be learning."

She said the new lessons combine math concepts with teamwork, problem-solving and even writing. Students still learn "two plus two equals four," but they also learn why they need to know that.

A sample second-grade project asks students, working in pairs, to figure how to divide cookies among the class.

"It's applying math to everyday problems," Ferguson said.

Obviously, it gets more complicated than cookies.

By seventh grade, students would be expected to figure out this problem:

"If you make $750 a month, would you rather have a 12 percent raise, or an $85 per month raise?"

Sounds like "word problems" many adults may remember hating.

But those were the problems that actually put the concepts into action. The new math cleverly disguises them by throwing in three-dimensional "manipulatives" and calculators and calling them hands-on projects.

Even calculus concepts begin in elementary school. An example:

"If a pair of rabbits each produces two new rabbits every month (one for each existing rabbit) in less than two years there would be more than a million rabbits."

Mathematicians call it "exponential growth." Third-graders might have paper rabbits taking over the school. But they'd get the idea.

The experts say being exposed to the concept while young makes it easier for students to grasp more difficult problems later, like in high school, where they might be asked to become "forensic mathematicians" and figure out "how tall a person would be whose femur is 17 inches long."

Anyone interested in learning more can attend a free FANS workshop. Current dates are: 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at the Arts and Science Academy in Galloway Township, and 7 p.m. Sept. 29 and Oct 13 at the Galloway Township Public Library. Call Marilyn Ferguson to register at 652-2253.

In Cumberland County there is a FANS workshop at 6:30p.m. Oct 15 at the West Avenue School in Bridgeton. Call Barbara Burns at 453-3269.

In Ocean County, a program is planned for Jan. 19, 1999, at the Russell Brockman Middle School in Barnegat, Call Mary La Bruna at 698-5880.

FANS also has a Web site that lists workshop dates, and other information for parents. The address is www.dimacs.rutgers.edu/fans/