Making Math Social

We’re pleased to announce an exciting new way for our users to collaborate when learning math. You may ask “how math can be social?” Well, we’ve developed some easy to use tools that allow you to interact with your friends and the whole web world.

We’re calling the feature ‘Mathlets’ – an acronym for Math-Learning-Teaching-Sharing. It’s still in Beta but here’s what the page looks like on Google’s OpenSocial platform Orkut

To start with you can see what lessons are being read by your friends and what everyone else is interested in for that matter. We’ve also made it possible for you to create a journal, add links and even add a video to make a personalized copy of the lesson – which you can then share with all your freeloader friends …and if you prefer instant help, we’ve linked in Google Talk for you to collaborate in real time.

At HeyMath! we believe that collaboration and math are natural partners. From the days of Pythagoras – who incidentally worked in a large team – right up to the design of the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge University, it has been well understood that talking about math to peers is vital.

Happy learning…teaching… and sharing!

Working backwards?

From Secondary to Primary

Over the last seven years HeyMath! has developed a network of lessons covering secondary level mathematics. We have continually refined the product in response to feedback and requests from the schools we work with.

In May 2007 we started to move on… to primary level!

The maths at primary level is more basic than the maths at secondary level, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is easier to teach.

The needs for clarity, fun, a good foundation and interaction are greater at primary level. There also seem to be greater opportunities for creativity, motivation and inspiring a love of maths.


Creating a teaching resource

Here is my experience of preparing a plan for a primary lesson:

My first few ideas are usually fairly dull, so I make a big effort to think 'outside the box'.
- What is the heart of this concept?
- Identify with where a student is coming from: What would be familiar to them? What is new? Why is it hard? Where are the potential traps?
- What contexts could appeal to the student? What contexts could be new and diversify their experience?
Then I hit on something that grabs my imagination: perhaps an engaging presentation that gets to the heart of the concept, or a fun activity that provides lots of practice.

Once I am excited about the material then it is hard to make anything other than a top quality lesson!

During the creation process itself I often find my explanations getting clearer and simpler. This means that for some topics it is helpful to create lessons 'in reverse'. For example I made a review of the long division method at primary 4 level before attempting to teach the method at primary 3 level.


Philosophies and techniques

I feel that the philosophies and techniques I've developed while working on secondary level lessons can be applied even more effectively at primary level. I believe in techniques such as these:

Let's tell stories to engage the imagination. So you could have Mary sharing 63 oranges between 7 friends. But so what? Ralph is an Antarctic explorer dividing fish among penguins. That's a more engaging story!

Let's use accurate mathematical language in familiar contexts. Let's use the word 'remainder' in our English sentences as well as in Maths division exercises.

Let's create memorable settings for the concepts.

Let's learn by doing. Animated maths must not be a spectator sport. We can often interact with a concept even before we've been taught it formally.

Let's be brave enough to bring diversity by introducing new and fruitful settings for a holistic learning experience.



Feedback?

We would of course welcome further feedback from you as teachers and students. Feel free to comment on this post: What methods have you found work well? How important are real-life applications?


Your ideas, experience or research will help us further improve the resources you see at HeyMath!

Are you Smarter than a Singaporean 5th Grader?

We've just completed our first 'serious' benchmarking contest for 5th and 6th graders in Singapore in partnership with Raffles Institution, and boy was it hard work!!

128 schools participated in what was Singapore’s first ever online math contest and when the dust settled, students from Nanyang Primary School were at the top of the leader-board followed by their counterparts at Nan Hua Primary.

On your mark...	Get set...
Go...

Here’s the final tally:

Number of Participants 4565
Highest Score: 76
Lowest Score: 0
Mean Score: 30.6
Median Score: 30.0

And er, if you’d like to match wits with these kids, drop us a line…

HeyMath! sponsored Math modelling contest @ Kurukshetra '08

“Mathematics is one of the essential emanations of human spirit, a thing to be valued in and for itself, like art or poetry.” – Oswald Weblen.



"The very first edition of Kurukshetra was a phenomenal success and the second edition, Kurukshetra 08 had created very high expectations from all over the country. Now, we can proudly say that we have lived up to all those expectations. Math Modeling was one of the main events of Kurukshetra 08. Attracting young minds from all streams of engineering, this event was sponsored by HeyMath!. I had a great experience while working with the people of Heymath, especially, Mr.Ananth and Edward. With HeyMath!, work and fun are always in the right mixture. We learned quite a lot of things while looking for the problem statements and had great fun, rephrasing those problem statements to suit real life situations. Overall, the event was a great success among the participants and it would not have been possible without the help and support from HeyMath!"
- Rajaganesh, Event Lead, CEG-Guindy

"Supporting the organizers of the maths modeling competition was a fantastic experience. I enjoyed suggesting problems that would tax and entertain the finest minds in the College of Engineering, Guindy (and beyond). It was an education in Indian current affairs seeing the contexts used for the questions. The highlight was watching both rounds of the event and chatting to the contestants; the atmosphere of endeavor, maths know-how and excitement was tangible"
- Edward Drake, HeyMath!

We cracked it!!!

Answers to the crossword puzzle posted on February 5, 2008

By The Creative Content Team!

An online Mathematics contest on its way...

Raffles Institution, Singapore’s leading school is going to conduct the Raffles Institution Primary Mathematics World Contest 2008 on 29th Feb 2008. The objective of this contest is to increase interest in Mathematics amongst primary school students as well as give them an opportunity to discover their talent in solving challenging Math problems. This also helps schools to benchmark their Mathematics standards in an international platform.

Raffles Institution has teamed up with HeyMath!, its IT and pedagogy partner to conduct the first round of this contest online. HeyMath! has created an online testing platform using which 4500+ primary school students from all over Singapore and Indonesia are going to take part in the contest.

Based on their performance students will be awarded certificates from Raffles Institution and HeyMath!. The top 50 participants qualify for the second round.

In order to help students prepare for the contest, Raffles Institution and HeyMath! have developed a set of preparatory lessons and worksheets to enable students expand their knowledge and improve problem solving skills necessary for success in such Math Contests. The preparatory course focuses on mathematical reasoning and includes useful approaches and methods to tackle problems.

This opportunity from Raffles Institution has proved to be an impetus for us to create an online testing platform which can be used for a variety of purposes. The application can also generate detailed reports based on the test outcome.

HeyMath! Joins Microsoft's Startup Accelerator Program

HeyMath!, the leading E-Learning solutions provider for Mathematics, today announced that they have been invited by Microsoft, the world's leading software provider, to join its elite Startup Accelerator Program, in India.

Developed in formal collaboration with the University of Cambridge, HeyMath! is a specialist education technology company that has also been featured as an example of globalization in education by New York Times Columnist Thomas L. Friedman in the bestselling book "The World Is Flat". Adopted by students and teachers at progressive schools in India, the United States and by over half the highest performing schools in Singapore, HeyMath! resources reflect a blend of 'best practices' from top schools and are constantly updated based on user feedback.

Paul Murphy, Director of Innovation, Microsoft Corporation says "The Startup Accelerator Program is one of several investments Microsoft is making to help foster a healthy local software economy in India. HeyMath! is the most recent recipient of this investment as an innovative startup that's helping to solve a complex societal challenge. Not to mention the market for remedial education is several billion dollars in each of their target countries."

The Microsoft India Startup Accelerator program is designed to help high potential software startups get access, guidance and support to accelerate their success through a series of non-equity investments. Selected companies receive customized engagement plans to support their software and market development efforts.

"Innovation is our DNA," says Harsh Rajan, Co-founder of HeyMath! "The global shortage of qualified Math teachers is exacerbated in a Flat World and this has created a systemic imbalance of immense proportions. There is no perfect education system...so, getting the formula right for parents, is the key to preparing children for a 21^st century education. Our team is working flat out to find simple and collaborative solutions using technology to effectively address very real problems in teacher quality, curriculum instruction, assessment, after-school remediation and benchmarking."

"We are excited about being a part of Microsoft's unique Startup Accelerator program and believe that Microsoft's longstanding commitment to the K-12 education segment will help us significantly expand our customer base across global markets and achieve leadership positions in a much shorter timeframe than previously possible" says Harsh.

The Microsoft India Startup Accelerator Program is co-managed by Microsoft India and Microsoft's Emerging Business Team (EBT) in Silicon Valley. This team works with venture capitalists (VCs) and start-up companies worldwide to enable innovation and accelerate the software ecosystem. The team's mission is to identify and facilitate opportunity for start-ups and VCs, acting as the single point of contact and accountability to Microsoft. Paul Murphy is director of innovation for Microsoft India. His charter is to increase innovation in India, for India, by working with start-ups, financiers, policymakers, academia, and industry visionaries.