Week 7

I would first like to note that I found the Berkowitz reading to be fascinating. Particularly due to the success of this app and the clear demonstration that interaction with parents around math leads to math achievement. I suppose this is interesting to me because I am the daughter of a math teacher. Thus, my childhood was full of math games. I still remember looking at the Pythagorean Triangle drawn on my garage wall as a child wondering what it meant. My sister was a math major and I highly considered being one before settling on Symbolic Systems. It is clear to me that the engagement I had with my mom around math at home was a very significant component in my math achievement. I suppose I wonder how can we expand apps like this so that young children who do not have parents who are comfortable with math can gain the necessary engagement to improve their math skills. Particularly I wonder how do we change the mindset around math in the home to be more like that of stories in the home- a necessary part of a child’s home experience. And how can we support parents so that they may better engage with their children in the home? Is their a way to provide a math app that has a component solely for parents to become more comfortable with the math, in addition to a component that allows them to engage in the material with their children?