troutwife: MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle -- my REVIEW

Have you ever heard anyone say that math is just not useful in the real world or doesn't apply to anything, unless you are an engineer or something (or have you been guilty of saying it yourself? yikes!) I am not one of those people--as a matter of fact, I really enjoy math, especially algebra, and when I hear statements such as that, it is bothersome :) I try to emphasize to my children a variety of applications of math in everyday life.

This program that I had the opportunity to review, the MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle by NatureGlo's eScience is created and taught by an individual who is probably horrified when she hears statements devaluing math. She has created four courses which seek to teach students about the math-art connection through courses entitled, "Math Connections with the Real World," MathArt in Ancient Cultures," "MathArt in the Arts & Sciences," and "MathArt--Patterns in Nature."

There are many things you can download and print

The course that we had the opportunity to use for the past several weeks is Math Connections with the Real World. My 13-year old daughter was interested to jump in and learn! When you log in, you are brought to a page which you click on your chosen course and then you have the opportunity to download a set of paperwork for the first lesson. Some of the parts of this download are a study guide,

guided note-taking helps keep the student
focused on the lesson

which is a kind of guided note-taking which the student can fill in as the teacher goes through her powerpoint slides.

a checklist in the download to help
students fully embrace the course

There are also many activities that the student may complete which accompany each lesson. Some of these are in the "Student Assignments and Project Workbook" and more of them are on a web link that is listed in the lesson as well as in the download. Some of the additional activities are links to ideas on other websites, other youtube videos, things such as TedTalks, and more.

An example of a resource page from which students
may do additional activities/view additional videos, etc.

The course that my daughter used, Math Connections with the Real World, focuses on the golden ratio and Fibonacci Numbers--a very interesting topic for those interested in patterns, different symmetries, perspectives, and more.

The instructor teaches via a series of slides which she has made and reads to the students. Some of the classes, as they have been taped from live classes, feature children who were taking the class doing some of the slide reading as well.

Students catch an occasional glimpse of the teacher as she reads the slides to them.

One neat thing that is included with these lessons is a Quizlet application to quiz and then test students on the content in the lessons. This is a great way for them to review and reinforce ideas they have heard/learned.

Topics that were covered in the class that we used ranged from what are Fibonacci numbers and what is the golden ratio to instances of these concepts in nature as well as in different art, architecture, and music forms. There was also a lesson on quasicrystals.

SO what did we think? My daughter and I both found the lectures to be quite unprofessional. I felt like the teacher had put a great deal of thought into making the slides, but then the majority of her "lectures" were simply her reading the slides to the students without much more teaching on the topics. Some of the taped live-interactions distracted and had lots of unnecessary fumbling. It was not easy for us to listen to and learn. I felt like the explanations were of varied levels, some things were easily understood by my daughter, other things were completely over her head; I had trouble following many of the lectures as well. I didn't feel like the concepts were really taught by the instructor as thoroughly or as easily-understandably as I had wished.

Also--my daughter had a hard time figuring out what she was supposed to do when, and we had a bit of difficulty navigating around the site to find the resources that we needed at different times. There is a very large collection of other projects/videos/websites linked to from the lessons; while some homeschoolers will appreciate that the instructor has done the work of compiling these resources and it is convenient to have them already gathered, most were something that we could have possibly found ourselves through a google search.

Many of the additional videos (such as the TedTalks) were very helpful in explaining or expanding on topics, so I am glad that those were included. I always enjoy having guided note-taking (fill in the blank style notes) to assist the student, so I liked that part.

I wondered how the other three courses compared to the one we experienced, so I went through and viewed several of the lessons in other courses. I really felt similarly to how I did from the first one.