Students in Integrated Math 2 took on the role of teacher during an assignment focused on factoring. To expand upon their learning and demonstrate their expertise on polynomial expressions, students were tasked with scripting, filming, and editing instructional videos on the topic.
I wanted students to engage in a project that really solidified their understanding so they could feel comfortable applying these skills in my class and beyond. An admirable teacher of mine always said ‘if you can teach it, then you really understand it.’
Jordyn Williams, Upper School Math
Translating math into written dialogue presented a challenge to many students. As Rafay Desautels ’29 explains, “the hardest part for me was explaining how factoring worked. It was hard putting it on paper.” Students experimented with how best to communicate their mathematical thinking through a script, making the creative process different for each student. Some opted to record their videos first and narrate what they saw when watching it back. Others read their scripts to families and classmates to check which lines made sense and which needed more work.
My favorite part of this assignment was writing the script and getting creative in choosing how I wanted to structure the video. Now I know how it feels to be a teacher and how to edit and write content.
Nirmeen Mohamad
With factoring as a foundational skill used in both math and physics, developing comfortability with the topic is an essential component of Integrated Math 2. Upper School math teacher Jordyn Williams hopes that this assignment leaves students with an artifact of their learning to look back on. “Oftentimes when I teach 10th grade students, they need a refresher on this skill,” Williams shares. “What if they could look back on a project that not only shows concrete evidence that they learned how to factor, but they did an amazing job with it!”
The thing I’m going to take away from this assignment is that it’s a really good idea to write down how different formulas work. It helps you remember and identify different ways to solve.
Rafay Desautels '29