By Esteban Fernandez, Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Education will roll out a new math course to high school students this fall that is reverse engineered to introduce students to math through practical application, such as welding.
“The kids get to really experience the math before they have to do the math work,” Michael Harshbarger, INVEST conference facilitator, said. “It’s really a way to get those kids that maybe don’t view themselves as strong math students to get them excited and engaged real early in the lesson.” (INVEST stands for Infuse, Network, Value, Engage, Support, Target.)
Harshbarger is also a math teacher at the Cabell County Career and Technology Center. The new course was part of the math standards rolled out at the INVEST symposium at Morgantown’s University High School Wednesday. Every five years, INVEST holds a statewide educational conference where educators learn how teaching standards across different subjects have been updated or changed for the coming school year. The symposium at University High focused on math content for grades 6-12.
Harshbarger introduced the course standards and teaching strategies for the new class to math teachers who attended the conference. He said the new course fills a gap for non-college bound students. While college-bound students take courses designed to prepare them for the higher order math world of academia, non-college bound students might benefit from taking more practical courses that don’t touch on abstract concepts such as imaginary numbers. As a result, educators designed the new course with pragmatism in mind and tied it to vocational careers.
