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  • 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.