I am Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin – a University of
British Columbia professor in Vancouver, Canada. I’ve been a science and
mathematics educator for 30+ years in Ukraine, Israel, USA, and Canada. I’ve
worked with K-12 students and teachers, also taught undergraduate physics. I’ve
always been involved with gifted mathematics and science education. In Israel,
I led Olympiada Zuta – a middle school mathematics competition. I also taught
in a mathematics enrichment program for gifted elementary students. I was a
mathematics and physics teacher in a special program for gifted students at
SchoolPlus in New Jersey, USA. In Canada, I have been one of the UBC Physics
Olympics organizers, as well as Family Math and Science Day at the UBC Faculty
of Education co-founder. I have also worked with gifted homeschoolers and their
families. Since 2020, I’ve been
volunteering at the UBC University Transition Program. I currently mentor
future mathematics and science teachers.
As long as I
remember, I have been passionate about mathematics and science. This is not
surprising, as I was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, on the grounds of the Ukraine’s
Physical-Technical Institute – one of the premier technical research centers in
the former Soviet Union. Most of my family members were involved in technical
fields. My mother – a mathematics and physics teacher; my father – an engineer,
my grandfather and uncle – physicists working at the institute. Thus, science
and mathematics were always part of my life. While I never considered myself to
be gifted (maybe because I have heard a lot about very famous neighbors, such
as Lev D. Landau or Alexander I. Akhiyezer), I was very interested in these
fields finding them intellectually rewarding and stimulating. I also was
offered multiple opportunities for growth both at school and at home. Consequently,
I was always exposed to interesting mathematical puzzles, problems, and
paradoxes, which developed my fascination and joy for figuring things out
(paraphrasing famous Feynman’s words). Without being aware of it then, I was
fortunate to be surrounded by the people who had deep knowledge and passion for
these fields. My parents also never doubted that mathematics and science fields
are something I would be capable of contributing to if I am interested.
When I left
Ukraine and moved to Israel, USA, and finally to Canada, I realized that my
experience was unique. I realized that a lot of K-12 mathematics and science
teachers, have rather superficial knowledge and might not have the passion my
family and teachers did. Few children have the families who could be as
supportive or as knowledgeable as mine to nurture students’ talents. As a
result, many kids turned away from mathematics and science without ever
experiencing the joy of finding things out. Unfortunately, gifted students were
often among them. At that time, I realized that one opportunity to bring such
experiences to these students was to focus on informal mathematics and science
education.
At first, I
worked with the middle school students in Israel. While it was formally an
enrichment program for gifted students at the Weizmann Institute of Science,
every child who wanted to participate was invited. For many students, it opened
a different view of mathematics and science. I remember discussing fractals
with the students, Euler’s problem of “The seven bridges of Konigsberg”,
combinatorics and Pascal’s triangle, etc. The topics were chosen because they
allowed us to develop different perspectives on mathematics. It was not an
accelerated program, it was a truly enrichment program for both the students
and myself. This gave me the motivation to develop different approaches to
mathematics and science education and continue learning.
While working
with gifted students in New Jersey, I asked them to question the facts that in
their school curriculum were taken for granted and rarely discussed. Many of
these students did not do so well in traditional schools, because they were a
nuisance to teachers. They asked too many questions, refused to follow
instructions or do repetitive worksheets. Maybe these students were not as
gifted as the famous C.F. Gauss, but they definitely experienced the boredom of
traditional mathematics and science education and unlike their peers, many of
these gifted children rebelled. As this also was an enrichment program, I
wondered, how difficult it would have been for these students to endure days
and days of neither challenging nor intellectually stimulating lessons.
My next big
pivotal experience was working with future mathematics and science teachers at
UBC. I decided that it was not enough to expect that informal out-of-school
education will be sufficient for gifted students. First, how do we define
giftedness? Second, how do we know all “gifted” students will have access to
these opportunities? Third, since I believe that mathematical and science
giftedness is dynamic, how do we ensure we support the development of students’
talents? Educating teachers who can do that became my goal. This is what I
currently focus my research and practice on. For example, my student-teachers
use phyphox smartphone app to develop projects allowing students to ask their
own research questions, design experiment, collect data using their smartphones,
and apply mathematics and science knowledge to answer their own questions.
My own experience has shown that to recognize and
nurture students’ talents, the teachers, first and foremost have to acquire deep
knowledge of the subject and its pedagogy. One of the mathematics books I read
as a student that has stayed with me ever since, is the book by a German
mathematician – Felix Klein “Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced
Standpoint”. Reading this book gave me an opportunity to develop a much deeper
view of mathematics, as well as interconnections within mathematics and between
mathematics and other sciences. I am convinced that to teach gifted mathematics
and science students, teachers have to know far beyond the “traditional
curriculum”. Knowing deeper opens unprecedented learning opportunities and
helps develop appreciation and joy of experiencing mathematics and science. It
also helps teachers see how big ideas in these fields were developed and how
many wrong turns were taken by great men and women to build these fields. Thus,
intellectual risk taking becomes part of learning. One of the advantages we
have today is the educational technology that allows students, especially
gifted ones, to try, fail, try again, and eventually experience the joy of figuring
things out and seeing the true beauty of our fields.
Comments
Post a Comment