TWU
Home > Marketing
& Communication > News
Releases
A Wii bit of math: Using the popular video game to teach mathematics
focus of a class at TWU Oct. 15
10/13/09
MEDIA ALERT
October 13, 2009 — DENTON – Using the popular
Wii video game to teach K-12 mathematics will be the focus
of Dr. Christina Gawlik’s math methods class at Texas
Woman’s University Thursday, Oct. 15.
“By connecting
math to what students do on a regular basis — play video
games — we can make math meaningful to students and
improve knowledge retention,” Dr. Gawlik said. “We
need to use every tool available to encourage future teachers
to be excited about math, so they can pass this excitement
on to their students.”
Dr. Gawlik’s
class will include an interactive demonstration of the games
and how they apply to mathematics. She also will be showcasing
how the sports package that comes with the Nintendo Wii can
be used to teach a variety of math skills, including statistics,
probability, fractions, percentages, logical reasoning, problem
solving strategies and more.
“If we can
bring math concepts ‘home’ for students and show
how it applies to their experiences, we can accomplish a true
understanding and comprehension of math,” Dr. Gawlik
said. “Plus, learning should be fun and interactive,
and using Wii to teach math accomplishes this.”
Media are
invited to film and photograph Dr. Gawlik’s math class
at TWU on Thursday, Oct. 15 from 1 p.m. to 2:20 p.m. in room
410 of the Multipurpose Classroom Lab (MCL) Building, located
off of Bell Avenue in Denton. Dr. Christina Gawlik and her
students will available for interviews after class at 2:20
p.m. For a map of campus visit, ww.twu.edu/maps.asp.
Dr. Gawlik has
presented on using Wii to teach math at the state and national
levels, including giving the keynote address at the state’s
2009 Successfully Training Educators as Mathematicians (STEAM)
conference and speaking at the 2009 National Council of Teachers
of Mathematics conference. For more information, visit http://myweb.twu.edu/~cgawlik/index.html.
###
Media Contact:
Amanda Simpson
Director of News and Information
Tel: (940) 898-3456
e-mail: asimpson1@twu.edu
|
