For the last few weeks, myself and members of the Review Crew have been learning about math in art and nature with the MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle from the NatureGlo's eScience website.
Classes on the NatureGlo's eScience website are recommended for ages 10+ and are taught by Gloria Brooks who has a bachelors degree in K-12 Education and has been teaching homeschool students online since 2011.
MathArt Online 4-Class bundle will eventually include four classes. Currently, there are two classes that are fully available: Math Connections in the Real World and MathArt in Ancient Cultures. A third class, Mathematics in the Arts & Sciences is currently being uploaded on a weekly basis as it is recorded and the fourth class, MathArt - Patterns in Nature will be coming in the future. Each class includes 6 weeks worth of lessons, including videos, activities, quizzes, study guides and supplemental material to help students not only learn the subject matter but to also begin to ask questions and to start making connections with the math that they are learning and what they see in the world around them, whether it be nature, artwork or architecture. How We Used It:
I'm going to be completely honest here. This didn't work for us. I really tried to use this a number of times but could never get past the first video in the first lesson with Garrett. This wasn't because of the material or the curriculum but instead because of a huge mistake on my own part. I don't know why I thought if Garrett wouldn't listen to me, that he would listen to another teacher on a video teaching him. I thought that with his fascination with architecture and design, especially from ancient civilizations, that maybe the Math Art in Ancient Cultures would be of interest to him. He loves repetitive patterns used in artwork and architecture. Unfortunately, for this class, it just wasn't going to happen. It was rather unfortunate too as it did appear as if the material would be very interesting and there are some really neat activities that go along with the weekly lessons. Garrett just does not have the attention span for it, especially with multiple students speaking in addition to the teacher (none of which he could see).
In order to provide a fair review of the website and classes, that meant that I personally had to work through a class. Honest truth here - I HATE math and anything to do with math, so this meant that I had to go against my own personal interests and sit down to an online math course. Since I had already watched at the first video of lesson 1 of the Ancient Cultures course and was honestly tired of it by that point, I decided to instead start with The Golden Ratio & Fibonacci Numbers. I'm very glad I did because I found that I was able to follow the material (for the most part) and had a pretty good understanding of what the Fibonacci numbers are, much more than I had previously.
As we do have a year subscription to the classes, I am going to try some different approaches. For one thing, each lesson comes with a slideshow presentation along with the actual video lesson. I might watch the lesson myself, then just show Garrett the slideshow, have a quick discussion based on what I personally pick up from the video and then do the activities afterward.
For more information and to see how other members of the crew liked the MathArt Online 4-class bundle, be sure to click the banner below. Also, you can find more information on NatureGlo's website. You can also find them on the following social media platforms:
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