Innovations

ENHANCED LEARNING IN MATHEMATICS THROUGH MUSIC, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NAFA

Music in Maths__, a collaborative project between Pasir Ris Primary School (PRPS) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), aims to promote higher engagement in mathematics learning through songs, simple dance steps, and musical experiences. The project began in 2012, shortly after a Mathematics Department meeting to brainstorm strategies to make learning mathematics more enjoyable for the Pri 3 (P3) students.

Research has shown that music aids in relaxation and positively influences learning. As children love music and singing, members of the Mathematics Department thought of weaving mathematical terms into songs for all P3 topics for teachers to use as tuning-in activities.

The collaboration went beyond the creative process. The collaborative effort with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) involved the Mathematics teachers in writing lyrics for all P3 topics and the NAFA students refining the songs and adding melody, rhythm, and structure creatively and imaginatively to the lyrics. Every year in March, NAFA students conduct Music-Maths sessions with all P3 classes. A typical session introduces students to the various musical instruments used to produce the mathematics song before they sing it. Students will enjoy learning mathematics and be more motivated to do well.

During the first phase of implementation in 2012-13, data from a survey conducted with the P3 students revealed that:

5% found the songs interesting
4% found the songs easy to learn
1% felt the songs aroused their interest in learning Mathematics
4% felt the songs helped them remember something about the Mathematics topics

Here are the comments by some teachers.

“The students were enthusiastically engaged. They danced and sang to the rhythm of the song; they learned mathematics while singing.” – Elizabeth Choo & Ong Kian Kie.

“The lessons by NAFA got them engaged in learning mathematics. Although motivated initially to participate in the music segment, without them realizing it, the students were also grasping mathematical concepts in a fun and happy environment. I highly recommend this collaboration.” – Muhd Fariq.

Despite some challenges, the positive feedback encouraged PRPS to sustain its partnership with NAFA for four years. Through this journey, PRPS learned the importance of careful planning and managing the association. Clear communication, commitment, and clarification of expectations are necessary to achieve the project’s desired outcomes. The team faced the initial challenges of arranging regular, face-to-face conversations to communicate requests or clarifications. Differences in priorities and time schedules also meant that the NAFA students, constrained by their programs, could not deliver requirements within the proposed time frame. Furthermore, the yearly change in batches of NAFA students made it challenging to move the project to the next, higher level.

These challenges notwithstanding, the shared beliefs and goals between PRPS and NAFA have helped to sustain this meaningful, symbiotic collaboration. PRPS is thankful to NAFA for its continual support all these years.

Numerelic App –

PRPS Maths Department collaborated with Temasek Polytechnic in 2015-2017 to develop a Maths Game application for Smartphones so that students can easily access and practice basic mathematical questions while on the go, hence making full use of ‘wait time.’ Temasek Polytechnic provided the programming expertise, while PRPS Maths Dept provided the content for the game. The objectives of the project are :

To inject fun into learning maths
To reinforce maths concepts learned
To leverage a Smartphone, a ready device to provide practices on maths
To sharpen minds to think with speed and accuracy

The name of this online game is ‘Numerelic.’ It targeted P4-6 students. The game has eight levels, each with three difficulty categories. A Player chooses ‘Easy,’ ‘Medium,’ or ‘Difficult’ and starts at Level 1. He selects a character to represent him in the game. The Player appears on the first screen, which shows him standing on a tile amongst a set of tiles with numbers on them. The Player aims to get to the Exit to move to the next higher level.

In the process, the Player has to answer mathematics questions that pop up. For each question answered correctly, the Player earns some points. The tile that has the correct answer will disappear once selected as an answer, creating a hole in the set of tiles. The Player does not need to answer every question as he may wish to prevent a vital tile from disappearing. A missing tile would mean the path to the Exit will be a longer route and, therefore, more challenging.

The more mathematics questions the Player answers, the higher his score is. A Player can use the points to ‘buy’ tiles to bridge gaps to make his path to the next Exit smoother. The Player wins an e-medal at the end of each level completed. After attempting all eight stories in all three categories, the Player was greeted with a congratulatory message that he had won all 24 e-medals.

2012 – Showcase at MOE ExCEL FEST

The Maths Department showcased two of its innovative projects – Times Sticks and The Maths Story – at the 2012 MOE ExCEL Fest held in Suntec City on 30-31 March.

2011 – The Maths Story – In Search of the Mathemagical Potion

The Maths Story – In Search of the Mathemagical Potion is a series of 15 stories set in the local context. Each story offers a brief introduction to a specific Maths topic at Primary Four. They are designed to be used as a tuning-in activity. The 15 individual stories, presented in the form of an ebook, are interlinked to form one complete story. They trace the adventures of the Hair Family in their quest for magical herbs to save their kingdom. Key mathematical concepts are communicated via captivating storylines and vibrant illustrations thus creating an inviting and motivating environment for our pupils. This project won the Best Cluster Suggestion in Nov 2011 and was showcased at MOE ExCEL Fest 2012 and Centre of Excellence@East Zone ICT Extravaganza 2012 in Victoria School.

2011 – Times Sticks

TIMES STICKS is primarily a learning aid that presents the child with the opportunity to learn independently through discovery, the fundamental concept of Multiplication, which is: “repeated-addition of the same number”.

It provides for a concrete & visual way to explain, relate, and represent abstract multiplication number sentences:

E.g.: 3 x 4 = 12 ;

3 groups of 4 is equal to 12 ;

3 fours, is 12 AND

3 x 4 is the same as 4 x 3.

It also serves as an effective and motivational guide for the memorization of the Times-Table, with its built-in self-correcting features.

This innovation is a winner of the MOE Innergy Award and it was showcased at MOE ExCEL Fest in March 2012.

2009 – The 3-in-1 project

This innovative The 3-in-1 project is a Teaching Package which integrates English, Mathematics and Science at Primary 3. It adopts the backward curriculum design with detailed lesson plans for clarity and easy implementation. The package comprises opportunities for problem-solving, student self-assessment and experiential learning to promote self-directed learning. It seeks to promote engagement in active learning and teamwork, boosting the confidence and self-esteem of students. In this curriculum, students engaged in self-reflection through journal-writing and they received feedback during teacher- student conferencing to discuss ways to make improvement. The project MOE Innergy Award in 2010. It has been shared at international, national, cluster and school platforms. The project was shared at Bulgaria Comparative Education Conference in Bulgaria in June 2010, Teach-Less-Learn-More Conference organized by E6 cluster in July 2010 and was awarded MOE Innergy Commendation Award and a Silver Award for Team Excellence Symposium. The team was also invited to share the project at East Zone Action Research Symposium in September 2010.

Maths Trail Blogs

The innovation “ Maths Trail Blogs” is based on the concept of the National Maths Trail website (http://www.nationalmathtrail.com). The main aims of this project are to show the students that Maths is all around them and to make Maths more relevant and meaningful in their lives. With their knowledge of Maths concepts and skills and working in small groups, students move around their community and use digital cameras to take pictures that they can use for their maths problems. They download these pictures to the computers and provide the text and solutions for their maths problems. They then publish these maths problems in the form of a Maths Trail in their own blogs. These blogs are published in the school web portal for the school population to view and respond accordingly. Students are encouraged to attempt the maths problems and at the same time read some information about the community places which the students have explored. Click http://prps.edu.sg/mathstrailblogs/ to find out more. The project is a joint collaboration with the IT Department. IT won the HP Innovation in IT Award in 2005.

Vacation Maths Blogs

This innovation is a spin-off from Maths Trail Blogs. Here, pupils were made aware that Maths is not only seen in classrooms, school and community, but also beyond the country. Teachers and pupils pose their vacation blogs online and maths questions relating to places visited. Viewers solve these maths questions to obtain more information on the places of interest. Click Here . The project won the Best Cluster Suggestion in May 2006.

Wildwest Stomp! ( Online Maths Game )

Wildwest Stomp! is an interactive multi-player mathematics computer game which aims to challenge our Primary 4 & 5 pupils to solve maths problems creatively, develop critical thinking skills in problem solving and sharpen mathematical skills through reasoning and making connections. The development of this game is a joint collaboration between Pasir Ris Primary School and Temasek Polytechnic. Pasir Ris Primary School provides the innovative ideas, contents and graphics while Temasek Polytechnic provides the technical support and software programming. This interactive game injects an element of fun and enjoyment into an otherwise routine way of reinforcing mathematical concept learned. It creates opportunities for pupils to learn how to construct appropriate mathematical questions which in turn enables them to better appreciate the subject itself. It encourages independent learning through self monitoring of one’s own thinking, thus promoting pupils’ confidence, accuracy and metacognition. As this interactive game allows pupils to customise their own game within the main game, pupils are exposed to simple basic logic of programming and game structure in the area of computer game design. As the game is designed with a chat-line feature, players are able to communicate to their friends whilst playing, building social and communications skills too.

This game builds pupils’ confidence in Mathematics and instills in them the love and appreciation for Maths by harnessing technology and leveraging on pupils’ interest in gaming. Wildwest Stomp! was awarded $5000 by School Innovation Fund in 2007. In the same year, it won the MOE-Lenovo Award and was accredited a Gold Award at the National Innovation Quality Circle (NIQC) organized by SPRING Singapore.

4 – Op Card Games

‘4-Op’ Card Game is created by the Mathematics Department and is partially funded by Citibank’s Ideas In Action. Several games have been designed to help sharpen mental calculations and increase agility in numeracy.

Citibank’s Ideas In Action Day was held at Nanhua Primary School on 24 Sept 04. The Maths Department and some P3A pupils showed off their creation ‘4-Op’ a card game to the public.

Very often, pupils waste time while waiting for teachers and for activities to begin. This ‘waiting time’ can be fruitfully utilised by having pupils preoccupied with fun, educational card games. These creative card games can also be played at home too. They are compact and can easily be brought around.

Objectives :

To provide educational recreation activities
To reinforce mathematical skills
To sharpen pupils’ mental calculation and increase speed and agility
To instil creativity and alertness among pupils.

This innovation is a set of playing cards packed together in a box with a booklet explaining how to play more than 25 Maths games. There are 60 number cards ( numbered 1 to 12 ) and 15 power cards representing 5 ‘Reverse’, 5 ‘Miss A Turn’ and 5 ‘WILD’. The cards are in 5 colours and have 5 different number shapes. For each colour and shape, there are 12 cards numbered 1 to 12. Many types of games with different rules can be played and they are made to be fun, exciting and pupils have to be fast or they will lose. The team designed the cards to be numbered up to 12 so that pupils will subtly learn up to 12 times tables instead of 10.

Normal poker cards are numbered up to 10 and do not come with POWER cards and hence have limitations. Our cards stretch pupils to think and work fast mentally at a higher level. In one game, pupils shout ‘ Freeze !’ when they win a round. Some of the games designed are : Add+Add, Sum-Diff, Spider Solitaire, Albino, Number Call, etc. With these attractive cards, pupils can also invent their own games. In fact, many games are created by pupils.

These cards are also used in class by teachers to reinforce
number-bonds /multiplication / etc with pupils playing in pairs or in groups. They are great for classroom teaching especially for the lower primary classes. They replace the usual plain number cards produced commercially.

Several packs
of 4-Op cards have been made available in classrooms and lesson plans are designed to include the use of 4-Op in the teachings. P1 teachers are using the cards extensively in the strategy known as SEED. The cards are great for teaching number bonds, addition, multiplication and shapes and colours. They can also be used for magic tricks. At school, pupils are playing 4-Op cards in class and during recesses in the canteen. These cards are placed in our Activity Corners in the classroom to allow pupils who complete their work early to play with friends.