NIHERST launches materials to make Maths easy

Wednesday 4th November marked an auspicious day for NIHERST as the institute will present the Hon. Esther Le Gendre, Minister of Education, with innovative resource materials for the teaching of mathematics at the primary level. These materials were produced under NIHERST’s Making Maths Easy competitive grants scheme, which was launched in 2004 to commemorate the institute’s 20th anniversary.

The initiative encouraged local educators to share best practices, create new materials and develop innovative methodologies that help to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics concepts from the earliest levels. This came as a response to the difficulty that most students throughout the school system have in coping with mathematics and appreciating its real life application. The goal was to generate student-friendly resource packages that could be replicated easily for widespread distribution and use in schools.

Implemented in two phases over five years and with the focus on the primary level, local teachers produced the following resource packages which explore and present mathematics concepts in less abstract ways:

• Statistics: Wise Choices, focusing on Infants 1 and 2, uses a problem-solving, storytelling approach in which students collect, organise, display and analyse data in order to make ‘wise choices’.

• Measurement Fun, also focusing on Infants 1 and 2, covers length, area, volume, mass and time. It takes an integrated approach and uses authentic situations, storytelling, games and puzzles to encourage group work and draw on the multiple intelligences of the students.

• The GeoChip Board: A Multi-purpose teaching aid, focusing on all primary levels, presents creative ways to teach all the mathematical strands: number, geometry, measurement and statistics.

• Space and Shape: E-Learning Interactive Software, focusing on Infants 1 and 2 and Standard 1, consists of a set of 3 CDs, one for each level, and covers most of the geometry objectives of the syllabus.

NIHERST, with generous sponsorship from the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited, has reproduced these resources for distribution to primary schools, teacher training institutions and NALIS libraries. The full packages will become a hands-on exhibit at the National Science Centre, where teachers and students can take part in workshops and demonstrations of all the lessons and activities.

Making Maths Easy teaching resource manuals (print)

Written: November 3rd 2009