MathPath

MathPath began in January 2010 and the beginning months have been focused on building a strong foundation for the development of the NSDL elementary math pathway to meet the overarching goals of the project, 1) to make high-quality mathematics content available to the target audience and 2) to contextualize the resources so that educators can easily incorporate them into effective math instruction. Considerable concentration was placed on several defining elements of the project, specifically identifying the needs of the target audience—the elementary math specialist; fostering relationships with partners; exploring and identifying the most pertinent features to include in the MathPath site and pinpointing the critical math concepts to catalog for the NSDL.

Groundwork for the project began with fostering new strategic relationships and strengthening existing alliances to help inform the design and development of the site. Project partner, The Math Forum brings a wealth of institutional knowledge and expertise to the MathPath project as one of the first and most well known math websites. Work with The Math Forum initially centered on conceptualizing the most significant math concepts/topics (the big ideas) to begin a focused content selection process. A multi-step process was performed to ensure the accuracy of the identified concepts beginning with a cross walk of the NCTM standards and focal points at each grade level. A review of the common core standards began as the document was in a draft form and continued until the final record was released. Information was synthesized into a list which was then assessed by many math experts, including project partner The Math Forum, senior advisor, Skip Fennell, who is an appointed member of the National Math Panel, past president of NCTM and a member of the Common Core development team, along with several other project advisors. Lastly, the list was evaluated as part of the activities in several focus groups conducted by the project’s external evaluator, ICF Macro. Focus group participants were provided a list of the math topics and asked their thoughts. Discussion included reactions to the list, priority of topics, and possible additions; no deletions were recommended.

Math Concepts included in the list: Beginning Number Sense; Basic Operations (includes exploration, strategies, properties, algorithms, problem solving); Fractions (includes decimals, percents, proportions); Geometry, Measurement; Statistics/Using Data and Preparing for Algebra.  Sub-topics were also identified under each concept, as for example, below beginning number sense is counting, place value, comparison and order, number lines, patterns, special numbers and relations.

Based on this information an initial resource scan was conducted by MPT project staff and a scoring rubric was developed. The rubric was evaluated and tested by several members of the project advisory board.

In addition to information gathered about math topics, outreach to MathPath target users has served to inform the MathPath site design and requirements process. Several activities were conducted to generate needs assessment data including focus groups at national math conferences, discussions with math leaders on the advisory board and with participants of the Elementary Math Specialists and Teacher Leaders Project (EMS&TL), a project supported by The Brookhill Foundation; and web metrics gathered from The Math Forum.  Additionally, the identification of math concepts described above, speaking with other NSDL projects such as MSP2 and with TNS, have all helped to inform the development of the site requirements.

At the same time, a metadata framework has been investigated with the Technical Network Services (TNS). In exploring and testing the MSP2 metadata cataloging system with sample elementary learning objects, a decision was made to use the same framework base with some vocabulary adjustments to meet MathPath collection needs. This effort is being made to create an interoperable cataloging system with MSP2 so the sharing of overlapping resources will be as seamless as possible.

MathPath resource materials being collected are both for student learning and educator professional development. Among the resources identified for student learning are virtual manipulatives, simulations, interactive activities, applets, videos and games. Educator materials in general are to help inform mathematical knowledge and instructional practice. They are to support the use of the student learning resources with orienting materials such as lesson plans, videos modeling best practices, journal articles and online course offerings.  A team of four math content specialists/digital librarians will be joining the MPT math specialist to begin building the collection in the library cataloging system as soon as it is completed by TNS.

Features and Functions identified for the MathPath site:

• Search for high quality elementary math resources. A robust search feature will enable users to search and drill down by keyword, topic, grade level or common core standard
• Tools to share, collaborate and communicate including folders to organize and save and share electronic resources, closed and open groups for users to collaborate (e.g.wiki) discuss (e.g. forum) and share resources.  This was a particularly important feature for the math specialists to support their teachers.
• Tools to comment, rate and/or review assets in the MathPath collection
• Browse and explore assets in the catalog through pre-defined categories, topics/themes, special pages generated by MPT using built-in tools from the site Content Management System.
• Engaging in social networking to support professional development activities
• Supporting the use of resources through discrete content bundles comprised of contextualized materials to support teaching and learning.