Wiz-Blox Math
Math is the Study of Objects and Their Relationships
Wiz-Blox is a special collection of blocks that can be assembled into a wide variety of shapes, for you to experience and understand mathematical relationships in physical form.
The Wiz-Blox Teacher’s Guide explains how to use Wiz-Blox to learn the following concepts, as hands-on physical realities:
Algebra: equations; Angles: acute, complementary, obtuse, reflex, right, supplementary, vertex; Basic Operations: integers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions; Comparison: bigger, congruent, different, equal, multiple, parallel, similar, smaller, symmetry, symmetrical; Geometry: cube, Euler’s Law, hypotenuse, quadrilateral, parallel, parallel lines, parallelogram, parallelepiped, polygon, polyhedron, prism; Measure: scale, height, length, area, width, depth, volume; Numbers: rational, irrational, real, prime, whole; Pythagorean Theorem, rotation, square, shape, size, reflection, translation; Reasoning: deductive, inductive; Trigonometry: right triangle, sine, cosine, tangent.
Observation and analysis are the foundations. Logic and creativity are what you use when you play with Wiz-Blox and solve puzzles. It’s all about experience:
“Experience is the best teacher.” – Julius Caesar
“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius
There is no need to memorize when you know, through experience, how math works.
Math Education in the United States is failing most students. 3/4th of high school graduates are NOT proficient in 12th grade math.
In the United States, as students proceed through school an increasing number of students fall further behind in math proficiency.
In grade 4: 40% of students demonstrated math proficiency at 4th grade level.
In grade 8: 33% of students demonstrated math proficiency at 8th grade level.
In grade 12: 25% of students demonstrated math proficiency at 12th grade level.
The Condition of Education 2017, U.S. Department of Education, page 165 nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017144
The main reason for this failure is that most of the time is spent teaching unrelatable math facts and procedures, rather than developing the understanding of creative, logical mathematical thinking.
Since experience is the great teacher, you can use Wiz-Blox to understand real math – the study of objects and their relationships.
For more information, click Causes of Poor Math
Dyscalculia
In Greek and Latin, dyscalculia means “counting badly”, is also known as ‘math dyslexia’ and ‘math learning disability’. It is a neurological problem, and often a lifelong disability that makes performing basic math-related tasks extremely difficult.
“People with dyscalculia struggle to tell you whether 7 is more than 5.”[1]
It is prevalent in about 5–6 % of school populations.[2] In grade school 1 or 2 students in a class of 30 students are likely to have some form of this disability.
In the USA about 3 million students have dyscalculia,
Worldwide about 50 million students have dyscalculia
Although difficulty with spacial and math reasoning depresses scores on IQ tests dyscalculia is Not related to general intelligence.
In fact, people with dyscalculia often have enhanced functionality in the related areas of perception and interpretation.
Many brilliant people have had dyscalculia, yet they made great contributions including: Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, E.O. Wilson, and Bill Gates.[3]
Panamath offers free dyscalculia screening test:
It’s a 10 minute, computer-based, visual test for pre-K to adults of quickly seeing two dot arrays (yellow and blue) and asked to select the color of the more numerous dots. It can be used to differentiate people whose math difficulties are likely due to dyscalculia from people whose difficulties are likely due to math anxiety, or other issues. The test is available for free at panamath.org
For more information, click Dyscalculia