Video
Structuralist Approach for Teaching Geometry:
Using Visual, Hands-on Models to Present Basic but Abstract Ideas
- Presented by: Agida Manizade, Ph.D., Radford University, VA
Click here to watch the video.
Proposed Warm-up Problem:
You are a SUPERWOMAN/SUPERMAN. Imagine one morning you leave your home and start travelling straight ahead.
You travel for a very long time. No matter what gets in your way, you find a way to maintain your direction.
Where will you end up? Describe your path.
Description:
The structuralist approach for teaching mathematics, means using series of specific, concrete, intuitively accessible
models to allow learners to explore and to ‘discover’ mathematical strictures through a ‘spiral’ cycle which revisits
key abstract mathematical ideas.
Adapted from:
Henderson, D. W., Taimina, D. (2005). Experiencing geometry: Euclidean and non-Euclidean with history, 3rd edition. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Lenart, I. (1996). Non-Euclidean adventures on the Lenart sphere: Investigations in planar and spherical geometry.
Berkeley, CA: Key Curriculum Press.