Maths Lah! Lau Pa Sat edition

gif from Google Tour Creator's site

Google Innovators all over the world have been ramping up efforts to support teaching and learning away from school. Some have shelved their Innovator projects while others are repurposing or changing their innnovator projects to focus on the opportunities that comes with this crises (COVID-19 pandemic).

For example, Peter Rosenqvist from the #SWE19 cohort shared in an email to all of us Google Innovators:

"If you need support to choose a math tool then the ”Digital Math Inspirator” could be of great help. You will find some of the best digital math tools to use on a computer, Ipad or mobile phone. I hope it might be of great use to you as a teacher and your students."

the welcome screen of his site

 His site includes an amazing curated list of resources for the teaching of Mathematics and I have personally used some of the sites he recommends myself.

screenshot of my Google Site

As for me, I have been working on a project to address the challenge statement : "How might we make learning Mathematics more relevant, appealing and personal (RAP) for learners?". My work-in-progress solution is called 'Maths Lah! Problem-solving with 360° virtual local experiences... '. During the innovator academy (#SEA19), I went through the Design Thinking process, including ringing the fail bell once or twice, to land on this idea to work on for the year. You can access it here. It is hosted on a Google Site thanks to the suggestion from my amazing mentor Andrew Caffrey (also a Google Certified Innovator and the Regional Director for EdTechTeam in the UK).

Google Meet with my Mentor

Back then, it was extra interesting as we had access to the Beta version of the My Maps so I started exploring its use for my project which was supposed to bring to life Mathematics in the local context through 360° images and familiar satellite/street maps view on Google Earth. However, the file was quite heavy and it took too long to load which may affect my students' interest levels.

Google Tour Creator logo

Afterwards in early 2020, nearing the quarter mark since September 2019, I explored the use of Tour Builder and I made a version there too. The iterative process helped me in refining the content and was particularly because I wanted the interface to be easily accessible and also have the features that I wanted. My Tour Builder version still looked at Lau Pa Sat as an iconic place to eat in Singapore but it includes multi-disciplinary learning beyond just Maths when buying food and drinks.

By February, after some video calls with my mentor, I had created the latest prototype using Tour Creator. I have also put in the effort to create another virtual experience in East Coast and host those things on my Google Site at https://sites.google.com/view/mathslah/home. I also made it a point to build a community and gather feedbacks so that eventually more teachers or even students can create their own virtual experiences and stories with Mathematical Problem Solving in the future. You can check out one of the virtual 360° tours below. The rest can be accessed through my site where there's even a 'How-to' guide on creating other similiar Maths Lah stories. I welcome you to try those that I have made and I challenge you to create some too using the resources already available online.