Projects Can Help or Harm

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Projects can make math really fun, but only if the students actually have the prerequisites in place to do them, because if they don’t, if they don’t know the basics and you’re asking them to do this advanced project, then it is an awful experience.

They’re sitting there confused like, “What am I even supposed to be doing?” How do I even start? So they just look over and copy what the smart kid does, right?

And even if the project is something that they find intrinsically interesting, if they can’t actually do it, then they’re just being set up to fail. And that sends the exact wrong message.

It sends the message, “I’m not cut out for this. There’s this thing that I think is really cool, intrinsically interesting, and I’m not cut out for it.”

Further reading: Role of Teachers in the Math Academy Classroom - Math Academy Podcast #8, Part 1 .

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