Jake Scott aka Mr 2 Pi: Rapping math into the hearts and minds of students
Transcript
(Music up) Jake Scott: Okay. My name is Jake Scott, a.k.a 2 Pi. I am a math rapper or edurapper because I have branched into other uh.. subjects as well and my goal is to change the way that we view, appreciate and understand mathematics in America. Because, you know, math gets a bad wrap but I am here to give math a good wrap. And so that's why I started doing the math raps to help people understand that math is uh.. a beautiful sport. It's a fun subject and something that students should fall in love with. (Music up) I think that one of the things is that math has a lot of formulas and a lot of rules and you're already learning a ton of rules in life anyway and then to be given a subject that has its own set of rules that are sometimes different, I think that that can be confusing to students and it can be intimidating if not presented in the appropriate fashion. I think that the students related to my class to me as a teacher but then the subject of math on the other hand, it would be like pulling teeth to try to get the kids to participate and to cooperate and most of them cooperated just out of respect for me but not a passion for the subject. I started teaching precalculus because ini-- in the beginning I was focused on lower level math, algebra I, geometry and the contingent of students that are typically there aren't as motivated and so I thought the problem was that the students aren't motivated. I attributed it to the student. But then when I moved to precalculus, I saw the same characteristics and I said "You know what, this isn't unique to the lower achieving students, this is something that's across the board.” And so that's when I was motivated to introduce my character 2 Pi. And so that's when I started rapping myself. (Music up) I started off with the raps and then I- I shared the raps with my colleagues and then with the students and I noticed that my mature colleagues couldn't follow along because it was going too fast. The students followed along well but it was difficult for them to envision what was happening. And so I said "Okay, let me do a video. And so I made a video . And so that's where it all began. Well, I first did the videos, I sat there and I watched the kids. And, the students didn't know what to do. I remember once the first video stopped one of the students in the classroom started applauding and uh.. it was very weird because here I am in a math classroom, I'm supposed to be teaching, applause isn't supposed to happen. And so it was very weird , but I appreciated it. So, that was the beginning of it and from there on, I got the students involved and said it's not going to be about me anymore, this is going to be our production and so instead of them clapping for me it was like we celebrated together. I told them "Hey, I'm writing the next rap about, you know, the quadratic formula” and they said "Oh great". And so, you know, we get together, we make up some lines and I let them know okay, I need some dance scenes, I need this, I need that and everyone grouped in to participate and it was just amazing to see the students talents come out. I think that one of the things that we as Americans have wrestled with is our appreciation for the arts, our appreciation for music. One of the things we do in America is we compartmentalize things. Even our math curriculum is so fragmented. We have algebra 1 and then we have geometry and I think it affects their learning. When we have students who come in from other countries they learn math 1, math 2, math 3 and if you delve into math 1 it has some algebra in it, it has some geometry, it has some trigonometry and that it helps the students to see the connections. I think that the more we connect things for them-- actually things are naturally connected, we fragment them. And so, we get them back to their natural state. It helps the students minds and it was great to see the students bring out their dancing talents, their acting talents and see those enhanced in the name of mathematics. It was great. It was very encouraging to see that. (Music up) I think that with learning mathematics if it is presented in a rap in addition to how you're learning as well I think that it aids in the facilitating the storage and recall of that information. For example the quadratic formula, when I taught my students the quadratic formula it was through a rap. "You take the square root of B2-4AC and do you add it and subtract it with the opposite of B? Take the values you get divide them by 2A now you're solving the quadratic formulatic way.” (Music up) And so my students, what they would do is they-- they're going through a song in their minds as they're writing down the quadratic formula. And it's to a beat and that body of information is stored away to a beat and beats are organized as well. Music helps to seep into our subconscious. And if it's taking something along with it then that information is going along with it as well. It definitely is an organizing tool and uh.. it- it aids in organizing and when things are presented in an organized fashion then it's the storage and the recall of that information is facilitated. Achievement levels rose but in addition to that the students appreciation for math, their perspective ,, their love for math changed. They wanted to do math. They came over the summer to do math. They gave up their summers, you know, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. to do math. It was just so encouraging to see the bonds that were forged between students as they participated in the, as they listened to the music. It definitely had an effect on their view of math, their appreciation for math, you know. And it was a beautiful thing. (Music up)  
|