Hands-on Approach to Math and Learning

Presbyterian School students learn about banking and economics in second grade.  Presbyterian School second grade teachers take a unit on money and bring it to life by allowing students the opportunity to run their very own business of selling trail mix for a day.  In preparation for their trail mix sale, second graders went on a field trip to Corev America, Inc. to learn firsthand about what is required to start and function a business, including such concepts as market evaluation, pricing, preparation, packaging and advertising.  Before embarking on their small business venture, students had to go to the school business office to ask for a loan to purchase their inventory.  In order to decide how many bags of trail mix to produce students learned about supply and demand as it related to their production needs. Students purchased, gathered and counted the ingredients for their trail mix and made school wide advertisements and sales pitches to encourage customer sales.  On their big sales day, each second grade student had the opportunity to work the cash register, selling bags of trail mix and making change as needed.  On their own accord after receiving the net profit from their business venture, second grade students decided to spend their proceeds on books for children at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  Second graders will pick out books and determine how many they can purchase with their profit. Overall, these second graders had a wonderful time operating their own business and learning what money can do for themselves and others.

This integrated hands-on second grade math project stems from the Everyday Mathematics curriculum.  Everyday Mathematics is a research-based curriculum developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project. UCSMP was founded in 1983 during a time of growing consensus that our nation was failing to provide its students with an adequate mathematical education. The goal of this on-going project is to significantly improve the mathematics curriculum and instruction for all school children in the U.S. One fundamental principle that has guided the development of Everyday Mathematics is that students acquire knowledge and skills, and develop an understanding of mathematics from their own experience. Mathematics is more meaningful when it is rooted in real life situations, and when children are given the opportunity to become actively involved in learning. Teachers and other adults play a very important role in providing children with rich and meaningful mathematical experiences.