A New Method for Colorful Math Lessons – Learn about the PUSE Methodology
Conference in Gergely Czuczor Primary School, June 10, 2019
Agenda
- 07:45 – 08:15 Arrival, check in
- 08:20 – 08:25 Opening ceremony
- 08:30 – 09:00 What to know about the Poly-Universe game: presented by the inventor Saxon
- 09:05 – 09:30 Brief summary of work done – Ildikó Mojzes
- 09:35 – 10:00 Presentation of the online interface – Gábor Dráfi
- 10:00 – 10:20 Coffee break
- 10:25 – 11:25 Demonstration classes with play set in three classes
- 11:35 – 12:15 Workshop – participants get to know the game and methodology with the help of project team members
- 12:20 – 1:20 pm Lunch
- 13:20 – 14:00 Presentation of the methodological publication to the institutions
- 14:00 – 14:15 Evaluation, closing
Summary
We chose 10th June as the day of the conference. The invited institutions were within 50 km from Nové Zámky. We were pleased to see the responses of 31 people from different kinds of institutions who were going to come some days before the conference. From Nové Zámky two primary schools with Slovak teaching language and three secondary schools (the High School with Slovak teaching language, Péter Pázmány High school with Hungarian teaching language and the medical vocational school) participated in the conference. Based on the attendance register it was clear that it was not only public schools that showed interest, the range of the participants’ occupation was wide. There were participants from the Methodological Centre, the State Educational Supervision Institution, The Slovak Association of Hungarian Teachers, special schools, the Private Secondary School in Kolárovo and the Faculty of European Studies at the University of Nitra.
The first part of the conference was held in the school canteen based on the schedule. After the headmaster of the school, Zoltán Péter opened the conference Saxon gave a presentation about the Poly-Universe game. His presentation was followed by Ildikó Mojzes’s summery of the Poly-Universe team’s work in the particular project phases which took altogether two years. She showed in details the students’ work, presented the work group’s observations and the ideas that they got as they were solving PUSE tasks. She was also talking about the creative atmosphere at her lessons. Ildikó emphasized that 300 students have been working with the game sets not only at Mathematic lessons but also at the afternoon club and the summer festival of the school which is traditionally held in June.
Via the photos and the task sheets shown at her presentation she was proving the effectivity of the Poly-Universe methodology.
Gábor Dráfi presented the PUSE web page in details. He showed the attendants how the PUSE tasks can be viewed and downloaded, explained in what system they are arranged in and where they need to register for downloading the Poly-Universe Methodology book. At the end of his presentation he described the discussion platform of the page.
In the coffee break after Gábor’s presentation the attendants asked many questions. Some of them even had a go at working with the set that they got at the registration.
Open door lessons were given to the primary school students concurrently in three classes so that all the attendants had the opportunity to see all the differently set lessons. (They did not have to observe the whole lesson in one class, they could freely leave and see the other ones in another classes).
In 4.b Tibor Kollár applied the Poly-Universe methodology to teach fractions. 5.a had a geometry lesson lead by Ildikó Mojzes. The kids were revising basic mathematical constructions and relations.
Gábor Dráfi was giving an ICT lesson using the digital, vector graphical form of the sets for creating a video game in programming language Scratch. They wrote a short, easy code. When kids were done with it they could play the game. They enjoyed it.
While working with the game sets the participants cooperated in groups and expressed their opinion about the sets. They were very satisfied with what they experienced and saw in the classes.
Ildikó presented the Methodology book before lunch. She described the structure of the book, the system in which the tasks are arranged in based on their difficulty and the structure of the task sheets.
Zsuzsa Dárdai, the project coordinator was asked by the project team for handing out the methodology books to the particular institutions at the closing ceremony.
We were pleased to hear positive feedbacks at lunch while the free discussion:
- The Methodological Centre would like to present the games sets in schools with Slovak teaching language too. They also asked us if there is a possibility to translate the tasks into Slovak.
- The sets will be shown to university students at the faculty of education (University of Nitra)
- The sets will be tried in teaching those students who need inclusive education (special schools)
- The PUSE methodology will be used by teachers who are preparing for their attestation exam
Gallery
Zárókonferencia, Základná skola Gergelya Czuczor, Nové Zámky, Slovakia
A kétéves PUSE projekt zárórendezvényére került sor az iskola termeiben, június 10-én. Az „Egy új módszerrel a színesebb matekórákért” címmel meghirdetett konferencia iránt nagy volt az érdeklődés. A régió 31 intézménye képviseltette magát: a város szlovák tannyelvű alapiskolái és középiskolái, speciális iskolák, a módszertani központ, a Szlovákiai Magyar Pedagógusok Szövetsége, valamint magán- és egyházi iskolák alkalmazottai is jelen voltak. Az érdeklődők a meghirdetett előadásokon kívül három bemutató órán (4. évfolyam: Kollár Tibor, törtek; 5. évolyam: Mojzes Ildikó, geometria; 6. évfolyam: Dráfi Gábor, informatika) is ismerkedhettek a PUSE-módszertannal.