“Ofted’s report on creative partnerships (2010) underlines the importance of what artists including actors, designers, musicians and story-tellers, can bring to supporting children’s achievement. The reported benefits that working with artists brings to children learning mathematics’ and science is, for many people, counter-intuitive. Why should focusing on creative arts help to improve children’s understanding in other areas of the curriculum”. While there are many forms of creativity that can be brought into the classroom to support mathematical learning, dance is one that can speak to many students who have a variety of learning styles, it incorporates music, movement as well as visual and spoken cues to help the students learn. Dance is an art form rich in geometry, from the body positioning of the dancers, to the relationship of the dancers to the others in the space, as well, as how they move within the space. Dance is an excellent way to teach trigonometry, through observing the angle the dancers working leg makes in relation to the supporting leg when lifted off the floor. Dance teaches flips and rotations, as well, as translations as the dancer turns and moves around the space. Finally, dance teaches pattern in both physical movement and musical patterns. Creativity supports learning in the mathematics classroom in many was specifically supporting problem solving skills, “symbolic representation in a range of different modes and media supports thinking and learning ( Namy 2005, Malaguzzi 1995, Rogoff 2003, Egan 1991) across all intelligences, including mathematical intelligences... imagination supports the boundaries between reality and unreality more over it supports the development of abstract thought. Learning, including mathematical learning, requires that the learner go beyond facts. It requires emotional engagement and motivation” dance does all of these things, as well as working on patterns and geometry and provides students the opportunity to really get in touch with the geometry as they move their bodies to form the shapes.
While dance is our focus, most dance requires some form of music, thus it is necessary to discuss music. Music is deeply connected to mathematics, musical notation is a different system of representation of concepts that are also found in math such as fractions or parts of wholes, and though the written representation between music and math are different, the actual meaning of the symbol is the same. Music also introduces concepts from physics such as sound waves and looking at how amplitude and period, also found in graphs of cyclic trigonometric functions in math. Students can measure the distance between wave crests or the base, peak of the wave to, and compare how they affect both sound volume and how the sounds change as one variable or the other is changed. This not only combines math and music but also includes physics in the activity. Student could examine the relationship between the size of an object and the tone it produces with larger objects expected to produce lower tones, they could also experiment with the amount of force or pressure applied to create the sound and the volume. Music can be used to help students remember basic facts, formulas or procedures in math. Due to the nature of the brain students may be supported [AY1] in learning math through this means as they sing the songs, it has also been suggested that movements also aid in memory. “ the musical elements used do not have to be fully worked out songs – rhythmic chanting and movement will also support memory”. Simple actions with accompanying words could be very powerful in supporting students learning of mathematics as the rhythms songs and actions work with many parts of the brain. This is especially true for songs with finger or arm movements as the portion of the brain that controls the fingers is very close to the one that works on mathematical problems.
Drawing from the Ted Talk “ Dance VS PowerPoint a Modest Proposal”, dance can be used to explain complex concepts using no words at all and can represent complex ideas through movement that would be difficult “ We should dance all of our complex problems”. If it is possible for PhD candidates to dance their PhD, what is stopping us from having our students dance their math problems? If dance can show us complex topics in chemistry, physics and earth science, why not math? Our students have in innate sense of creativity born in them and this lets them use their creativity to present and share their ideas. Dance is an excellent tool for learning spatial relationships and trigonometry. Specifically in ballet, and often in other forms of dance, the dancer is asked to extend the working leg to a specific angle with the angle being measured in relation to the supporting leg. So that if a protractor was placed along the supporting leg in such a way that the working leg can move along the measurements indicated on the protractor. Common angles that many dancers typically are expect to know are 45 degrees or the working foot being level with the knee of the supporting leg, 90 degrees with the working leg extending straight out from the hip. As well as 22.5 degrees also known to dancers a degage or glisse height, in which the working leg is raised slightly off the ground roughly 3-8 cm depending on the height of the dancer and the length of their legs. Dance students often have a very clear understanding of angles because on a day basis they are instructed to place their bodies in very specific positions, using angles as a way of describing what the teacher or chorographer expects. This translates to working with students on topics such as geometry and trigonometry in several ways, allowing students to engage the brain body connection by placing themselves in the shapes or angles. “Learning through a hands-on kinesthetic lesson underscores how play in early elementary school can engender authentic learning,” (Fattal, 2014) dance is one way of making a math lesson kinesthetic. Having the students move uses cooperative learning strategies as well as several senses, that help them develop a deeper connection to the material as described by Jensen “Educators should purposefully integrate movement activities into everyday learning: not just hands-on classroom activities, but also daily stretching, walks, dance, drama, seat-changing, energizers, and physical education. The whole notion of using only logical thinking in, for example, a mathematics class flies in the face of current brain research. In fact, Larry Abraham in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Texas-Austin says, “Classroom teachers should have kids move for the same reason that P.E. teachers have had kids count” (personal communication, 1997),” (Jensen, 2005).
Utilizing dance and music as creative tools as part of a mathematics program promotes cross curricular connections, drawing on learning outcomes from fine arts, math, physical education and sometimes science. Students could be asked to represent data or create graphs by using their bodies, while pie graphs may be difficult, they could easily create dot, bar and line graphs using their bodies and represent changes in the number being represented by changing the position of their body in space or level in which they are working. By working across the curriculum students, begin to see connections in seemingly unrelated subjects. The Dance your PhD program is a great representation of the possibility of integrating dance across the curriculum including in science and math.
In closing the use of various forms of creativity, including dance in the math classroom supports student learning. By offering students, the chance to use their bodies as part of the problem solving process it engages many parts of the brain and allows the student opportunity to interact in physical and emotional ways with the class material. Weather it is a fully formed choreographed piece, a simple rhyme with actions or an improvisation for a student to work out a question, let’s dance the tough questions!
While dance is our focus, most dance requires some form of music, thus it is necessary to discuss music. Music is deeply connected to mathematics, musical notation is a different system of representation of concepts that are also found in math such as fractions or parts of wholes, and though the written representation between music and math are different, the actual meaning of the symbol is the same. Music also introduces concepts from physics such as sound waves and looking at how amplitude and period, also found in graphs of cyclic trigonometric functions in math. Students can measure the distance between wave crests or the base, peak of the wave to, and compare how they affect both sound volume and how the sounds change as one variable or the other is changed. This not only combines math and music but also includes physics in the activity. Student could examine the relationship between the size of an object and the tone it produces with larger objects expected to produce lower tones, they could also experiment with the amount of force or pressure applied to create the sound and the volume. Music can be used to help students remember basic facts, formulas or procedures in math. Due to the nature of the brain students may be supported [AY1] in learning math through this means as they sing the songs, it has also been suggested that movements also aid in memory. “ the musical elements used do not have to be fully worked out songs – rhythmic chanting and movement will also support memory”. Simple actions with accompanying words could be very powerful in supporting students learning of mathematics as the rhythms songs and actions work with many parts of the brain. This is especially true for songs with finger or arm movements as the portion of the brain that controls the fingers is very close to the one that works on mathematical problems.
Drawing from the Ted Talk “ Dance VS PowerPoint a Modest Proposal”, dance can be used to explain complex concepts using no words at all and can represent complex ideas through movement that would be difficult “ We should dance all of our complex problems”. If it is possible for PhD candidates to dance their PhD, what is stopping us from having our students dance their math problems? If dance can show us complex topics in chemistry, physics and earth science, why not math? Our students have in innate sense of creativity born in them and this lets them use their creativity to present and share their ideas. Dance is an excellent tool for learning spatial relationships and trigonometry. Specifically in ballet, and often in other forms of dance, the dancer is asked to extend the working leg to a specific angle with the angle being measured in relation to the supporting leg. So that if a protractor was placed along the supporting leg in such a way that the working leg can move along the measurements indicated on the protractor. Common angles that many dancers typically are expect to know are 45 degrees or the working foot being level with the knee of the supporting leg, 90 degrees with the working leg extending straight out from the hip. As well as 22.5 degrees also known to dancers a degage or glisse height, in which the working leg is raised slightly off the ground roughly 3-8 cm depending on the height of the dancer and the length of their legs. Dance students often have a very clear understanding of angles because on a day basis they are instructed to place their bodies in very specific positions, using angles as a way of describing what the teacher or chorographer expects. This translates to working with students on topics such as geometry and trigonometry in several ways, allowing students to engage the brain body connection by placing themselves in the shapes or angles. “Learning through a hands-on kinesthetic lesson underscores how play in early elementary school can engender authentic learning,” (Fattal, 2014) dance is one way of making a math lesson kinesthetic. Having the students move uses cooperative learning strategies as well as several senses, that help them develop a deeper connection to the material as described by Jensen “Educators should purposefully integrate movement activities into everyday learning: not just hands-on classroom activities, but also daily stretching, walks, dance, drama, seat-changing, energizers, and physical education. The whole notion of using only logical thinking in, for example, a mathematics class flies in the face of current brain research. In fact, Larry Abraham in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Texas-Austin says, “Classroom teachers should have kids move for the same reason that P.E. teachers have had kids count” (personal communication, 1997),” (Jensen, 2005).
Utilizing dance and music as creative tools as part of a mathematics program promotes cross curricular connections, drawing on learning outcomes from fine arts, math, physical education and sometimes science. Students could be asked to represent data or create graphs by using their bodies, while pie graphs may be difficult, they could easily create dot, bar and line graphs using their bodies and represent changes in the number being represented by changing the position of their body in space or level in which they are working. By working across the curriculum students, begin to see connections in seemingly unrelated subjects. The Dance your PhD program is a great representation of the possibility of integrating dance across the curriculum including in science and math.
In closing the use of various forms of creativity, including dance in the math classroom supports student learning. By offering students, the chance to use their bodies as part of the problem solving process it engages many parts of the brain and allows the student opportunity to interact in physical and emotional ways with the class material. Weather it is a fully formed choreographed piece, a simple rhyme with actions or an improvisation for a student to work out a question, let’s dance the tough questions!