Class 2 Exit Slip

Using the garden as a tool in mathematics education would be a great way to combine outdoor ed, knowledge of local ecology and basic agriculture, and real world math applications. If I had the opportunity to teach in and garden, I would like to keep an emphasis on developing an appreciation for the space in which we are learning together. There would be a few ways which come to mind in terms of using the garden to learn math. First, for younger grades perhaps, counting, classifying sets and categories, and studying basic geometry (ie. parallel rows, angles at which plants grow). For a more advanced class, ie. calculus, the first thing that comes to mind would be studying the growth rate of plants over the years to do some basic mathematical modelling. This would push the students to learn a little bit of calculus and experiment with population dynamics. I think the benefit of an open ended question like that is it pushes to the students to explore new areas of math which they can approach from the perspective of curiosity and exploration.

The obvious difficulty with teaching in and with the garden is that we need to try to fit a certain number of topics into the year, and there will be a bit of a time sink when it comes to heading out to the garden, having a less streamlined seating arrangement, use of technology etc. One way I imagine managing this is through the use of a flipped classroom model. Having the students prepare a little bit before class will allow us to use our time to focus on the key bits of understanding which may be missing, rather than try to cover all the material during that period.