Meet Marc Petrie — a dedicated math teacher at Willard Intermediate. When he’s not spending time with his family, writing poetry or coaching his soccer team, he’s looking for ways to take his math teaching practices to the next level.
In his search, he discovered Polyup and has since put it to test in his classroom. During the 2018–19 and 2019–20 school years, Marc carried out some research on his experience using the platform with his 7th and 8th graders. Here is a summary of his three main findings:
1. 85% Boost in Student Engagement
In comparison to traditional worksheet activities, Marc found that students would engage more by 85% when using Poly Machines. Polyup’s visual representation of math problems allowed his students to view the dynamic nature of the steps involved in solving complex problem sets. It also provided immediate feedback and the opportunity to his students to self-correct where needed. He found the Polyup interface helped his students attention more effectively while generating a visual understanding of the process and math logic behind it.
2. 80% Rise in Activity Completion Rate in 1/3 of the Time
In the past, Marc reported that students would score an average of 6 out of 20 on a given worksheet. After Polyup was introduced, engagement soared, and so did the numbers of activities completed. As students felt better prepared and more motivated to move onto the next activity, Marc found that they would also complete them much faster. Where they would typically take up the entire class time of 45 mins to complete activities, the students would finish the same content in Polyup in a mere 15 minutes.
3. 20% Higher MAP Pre- vs. Post-Test Scores
While comparing student Measures of Academic Process (MAP) test scores for 120 eighth graders, Marc noted a 20% increase from Fall 2018 to Winter 2019 math aptitude scores. In between these two test periods, Polyup activities were used in the classroom twice a week for 6 consecutive weeks.
Progressive Teacher Leadership + The Right Visual Learning Tools = A Winning Classroom Combination
While qualitative in nature, Marc’s action-based research approach demonstrates the impact on his student’s math engagement and ultimately their learning. It also highlights how important it is for teachers to equip themselves with the right tools to empower their students’ learning experiences. For more in-depth information on Marc’s research, read his complete work published here.
