Thirteen, New York City's public television station, offers Get The Math, a convergent media project designed to help middle and high school students develop algebraic thinking skills for solving real world problems. Drawing on conventions of popular reality TV shows, video segments begin with profiles of young professionals, who then pose challenges connected to their jobs to two teams of teens. At that point viewers are encouraged to try the challenges themselves using interactive tools provided on the Get The Math website, before returning to the video to see the teams’ solutions. Students can further explore the same algebra concepts through additional interactive challenges on the website.
Video segments and interactive challenges focus on math applied in music, fashion, video games, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. Following the videos, students can then take on interactive challenges related to those careers. Visit the home page for an introduction video before trying one of the challenges.
The website offers many features including:
- THE CHALLENGES: video segments presenting the career profiles and related algebra challenges; interactive tools to help students solve the challenges; video clips showing how the teams solved each challenge; and web-only extensions of the challenges using similar interactive tools to further explore the same math concepts.
- VIDEO: a collection of all the challenge-related video segments along with an animated “Get the Math” music video and the complete Get The Math half-hour program.
- ABOUT: Q&As with the professionals and the teams, answers to frequently asked questions and production credits.
- TEACHERS: online resources for teachers, including a training video showing how to use project materials in the classroom and a teacher’s guide with lesson plans.
- Plus: downloadable MP3s on the homepage of music by DobleFlo.
For more information, visit the Get The Math website.
Below is a preview of Get The Math.