Exit Slip Oct 8 - Discussion About Embodied Learning in Math/Science

 As I perused the insights of other groups' discussions, I noticed that there was pretty much a consensus that including embodied learning activities in math and science classrooms is an effective and engaging way to teach. Because the objective of natural science is to describe the natural world, there are endless opportunities available for teaching science in a physical, tangible sense. Although this becomes more difficult for highly abstract concepts (particularly phenomena on astronomical or microscopic scales), some metaphor and extension from everyday experience is usually possible. As for mathematics teaching, there are plenty of ways that patterns exist intrinsically within nature, and math is almost always necessary to create accurate scientific descriptions and models, so opportunities to connect mathematics with the natural world exist there as well.

In my group, we talked about how the difficulty of creating effective embodied learning activities in math and science classrooms lies in successfully eliciting student reflection and relational understanding. In a sense, it is possible for a student to jump through the hoops of a physical activity that is embedded with mathematical and scientific concepts only to end up with instrumental understanding of the concrete task. In order to have students grasp abstract concepts relationally, and also to not overgeneralize observations, embodied learning activities must be intentionally designed: students need to have the appropriate prerequisite knowledge and skills, receive sufficient guiding for their inquiry where applicable, and the teacher must model insightful questioning. From reading the responses of other groups, many of our peers seemed to think the same way. 

In short, it can be said that it's a waste of opportunity to not bring embodied learning into the math/science classroom, but it's also not enough to simply perform concrete activities without strategically and creatively connecting the activities to their embedded abstract concepts; this is where the real pedagogical skill comes in to play.

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