Utilizing an innovative and theoretically grounded approach, this project extends the work of cognitive scientists and mathematics educators who have previously documented the impact of comparison on students’ learning in algebra (Star et al., 2015), with the goal of transforming the learning that occurs in middle school (grades 7 & 8) geometry classrooms. The purpose of this project is two-fold: To provide animated mathematics curricular materials for geometry that focus on directly comparing different approaches to solving geometry problems, and to examine the effects of these materials on student learning of geometry. This project is pioneering a new way of learning geometry and is establishing a scientific basis for using contrasting cases to explore students’ procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding of geometry.
This free material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL 1907745 awarded to North Carolina State University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.