Introduction
Tuva can be used in a variety of different ways in the math classroom. From introductory explorations of new concepts to summative tasks that allow students to apply their learning to new contexts, Tuva has a wide range of activities to supplement any math curriculum. While some activities are longer form explorations that might function as the heart of a lesson, there are other Tuva activities that are shorter and can be used as quick warm-ups or for independent practice.
Below are a few illustrations of the different types of Tuva activities and how they might be used in the math classroom.
Introductory Activities
These activities allow students to explore new concepts in order to solidify their understanding. Students may be introduced to new vocabulary and engage in sense-making while visualizing mathematical concepts for the first time through data and graphs. There is very little prior knowledge of the mathematical content required to engage in these activities.
During introductory activities, the auto-grading feature of Tuva allows students to get critical feedback on whether they are mastering the concepts or not. This can also help students get themselves on track before the teacher needs to intervene. Teachers can also follow along with student work in order to pause the class at important moments to discuss misconceptions that might be happening.
Summative Activities
These activities are designed to give students opportunities to apply their mathematical content knowledge in the context of a dataset. Students will be asked to contextualize the mathematical concepts in order to draw conclusions about datasets. These activities draw on students’ prior knowledge that has been built either through introductory activities or other classroom instruction. These activities can also be used as assessment of student learning.
For summative activities, feedback can be used to assess mastery of student learning toward learning goals at the end of a unit or concept progression. The auto-grading feature can give teachers a quick overview of student performance, and teachers can use the feedback feature for a more comprehensive assessment of student learning. Additionally teachers can score the activities out of a set number of points determined by the teacher.