CLARKSVILLE, TN – What started as a 50-point class project has become a published tool for changing how students think about mathematics.
Kierstin Holman, a seventh-grade math teacher at Rossview Middle School and graduate student in Austin Peay State University’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, transformed her math history assignment into Mystery Mathematicians, a book of riddles designed to combat the mindset of students who don’t think they like or are good at math.
“I think a lot of kids just have it ingrained in them that they’re not good at math or hate it,” Holman said. “Everyone’s a math person. You just have to find what you like about math.”…