Private Universe Project Video 5

Building on Useful Ideas
The video started by demonstrating how several teachers were using manipulatives in the classroom and the different strategies they used to use manipulative to work with the students. A couple of teachers were using trains. They had a block of a specific length and had to use several smaller blocks to make the same length block. This was similar to the unifix cubes because the students were attempting to find as many combinations as possible. I thought it was very interesting how the video demonstrated the use of these manipulative across grade levels. The teachers wanted to allow the students to answer questions with "clarity" and would not accept "vague answers". They listened to their students and wanted to see how their students solved the problems. They wanted the students to have skills to figure things out with out giving up and allow them to be curious about problems. As Arthur Powell stated "we are getting students to take ownership of a problem, think deeply about it and exchange ideas with each other."
They also showed a teacher who began her day using different math related problems. She began the day with this to get her students thinking and all of the teachers were working on getting their students to think mathematically.
The video then went on to the previous core of student and how they were building upon strategies they learned in previous years. They were using Pascal's triangle to solve more complex mathematical problems. It is interesting to see the students go back to previous problems and use the same methods they used years ago to help them solve more complex problems. It's as if they use it as a reference then expand from there.