User:OLPC Mathematics

TITLE: USING THE XO LAPTOP TO AID TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS

Address: Hands of Charity Off Thika road, Seasons matatu terminal along Kasarani – Mwiki road past ICIPE Mark Koech c/o Theresa Okello Number of laptops: 10 Loan length: 4 months (9), 6 months (1)

Team participants:

Mark Koech (Team Leader)

Education: Student, United States International University, B.Sc, Information Systems and Technology

O-level Certificate, 2004

Elias Kimaiga Moregi

Education: KCA University BCOM and CPA

Accounts Clerk Nyakach Girls’ High School

Profession: Teacher, Matongo Mixed Secondary School

Stephen Sawa

Education: Diploma, Primary School Science

Certificate in Social work

Profession: Head Master, St. Aloys Academy

Maruti J. Soita

Education: Masters Degree, Education, Kenyatta University

Bachelors Degree, Education, University of Nairobi

Profession: Teacher, Chejamisi Girls’ High School

Elizabeth Ogutu

Mobile: +254 716 196 989

Education: Student, United States International University, BA Accounting

OBJECTIVES

The primary goal of this project is to develop a project that will aid teachers in Kenyan Primary Schools teach the basic concepts of Mathematics in sync with the Kenyan Primary School syllabus using the XO laptop. The specific objectives of this project are:

1. To improve the ability of children to memorise and enhance the use of the basic Mathematical operations, that is +, -, ÷ and × using the XO laptop applications.

2. To improve children’s ability and understanding of the measurement and calculation of area, circumference and perimeter of 2-dimensional figures and the Surface Area and Volume of 3-dimansional objects with the aid of the XO laptop.

3. To aid the children in the proper understanding of the topics of ratios, percentages and proportions according to the Kenyan Primary School syllabus.

PLAN OF ACTION

1. Develop a curriculum that will aid teachers as they teach basic mathematics concepts using the XO laptop.

2. Train the teachers just before the third term which begins in September on how they can use this laptop to aid them teach their students better and faster, at the same time improving the levels of understanding of these students.

3. Integrate the program into the school schedule making sure it does not interfere with the school’s activities and start the implementation of the program by the September the 10th

4. Use the mid-term and end of term exams to monitor the progress in the students’ progress.

NEEDS

1. There is a lack of proper teaching methods in Kenya and hence students at this tender age are unable to grasp the fundamentals of Mathematics. The XO laptop will therefore supplement the teaching methods already in place and will be especially useful with the object oriented and simple way that it does so.

== QUALITY / MONITORING ==

1. Yes, the project would benefit from documentation, support and/or testing since these will help track and monitor the progress of the project and help make any improvements if needed.

2. Teachers’ input would be valuable since they are experienced in dealing with these children and are the ones that will implement this program.

3. We will promote our work by posting the project progress to our website and also through the OLPC conference to be held in March 2010.

4. No, because there is a technical team that will facilitate the technical aspects of the project.

TIMELINE

The entire project will take a total of three months. The first analysis on the impact of the project will be done after six weeks and the second one at the end of the project using the mid-term and end of term examinations respectively.

CURRENT PROGRESS

There are three main challanges that we face at the moment.

1. There is no real understanding by the beneficiaries of this project on the explosive potential of the XO> Taking into consideration the fact that we are taking this project into a rather conservative community, and to an education system that is quite rigid even the slightest change, this is certainly the greatest challange we face.

2. We do not have available funds to run the project. We are working within a very tight budget since we are yet to establish a source of steady financial input.

3. Being a rather new machine, the trainers who will impliment this program are not very proficient on the use of the XO. This is not much of a challenge though since this is a fairly easy device to work with.

For the problems above, we have come up with few and fairly straight forward solutions which are all in progress.

1. The team leader went and visited the schools that we intend to take the laptops to with the XO and showed the schools' administrators how much it can boost the learning potential of the children by stimulating their interest to learn, and especially the use of activities like Calculate, Turtle Art and others to make the otherwise tricky process of learning Mathematics mush simpler.

2. We organised a small fund raising in the community that we are based in. This has helped to fund the initial stages of our project. However, this still remains a big challenge, since in order to impliment this we need more money. We are trying to organise another fund raising in the near future. Also, we are in the process of looking for some capital that can help start a money-making venture that will in turn fund a fraction of the project. We also appeal to well wishers to help us in any way they can, either by giving us donations or ideas on ways we can raise our own money as a team.

3. We are currently doing daily training of all the members of the team on usage of the XO. The technical team is sprearheading this and we are hoping that in two weeks since the traning began (24th August 2009), we will be able to bring all the members to par. Progress is excellent, as expected, since as I mentioned earlier, this is a fairly easy tool to use.

We are also making the final preparations in readiness for the start of the project, which God willing should take off on the 9th of September, 2009

Mark Koech (Team Leader)

Please e-mail your comments and suggestions to billiago@gmail.com