![problem child comic problem child comic](https://bang-phinf.pstatic.net/a/32afgb/a_hihUd018bng1jgc4oatq59ar_8bgzgp.jpg)
Their imaginations should be encouraged to explode. I don’t specify whether the character should be a hero or villain, male or female, human, alien, or robot. I’ve seen lots of Pi Day activities that revolve around making decorations out of the digits of pi, or doing something with pie (the food), but I like to challenge the students to come up with a Solution Squad character based on the concept of pi. Once they have a handle on the idea of math-themed superpowers, a fun activity to really check their appreciation of the idea comes on Pi Day. I’ve taught using the characters, even before they were in a comic book, for 10 years. But with repeated examples of the Solution Squad characters using their powers, students absorb the ideas, sometimes without even realizing it.
![problem child comic problem child comic](https://cafans.b-cdn.net/images/Category_106612/subcat_164944/25bttLkP_2003151419221.jpg)
When a comic book character embodies a mathematical concept, students are far more interested in the character-at first. Numerous studies show that storytelling and narrative help students retain information. Every construct he makes is itself an application of the Pythagorean Theorem. He can move things, including himself, along the hypotenuse face of such a prism. Radical, whose symbol is a square root sign, can create invisible electromagnetic prisms whose bases are right triangles. Once students learn their stories, they don’t forget the order in which to graph on the coordinate plane. Abscissa, born first, can run at hyper speeds along the horizontal axis, while her brother Ordinate, younger by minutes, can fly and dive along the y-axis. Abscissa and Ordinate, The Ordered Pair, are twins. She embodies the concept of equations, with balance on both sides of the equal sign. Equality can duplicate precisely the powers and abilities of any other person. LaCalculadora has a mind like lightning, and can process information at near-superhuman speeds and never forgets anything. That very idea is the concept behind absolute value, the distance a number is from zero. Absolutia controls temperature, which requires effort whether she raises or lowers it. In Jim McClain’s Solution Squad, my 2017 graphic novel (yes, it took 10 years), the heroes are teenagers with math-themed powers. Use characters themselves to embody math concepts.So here, I’m going to show you how I use the comic I wrote, and also provide additional resources for teaching math in the classroom: In early 2007, I read an article that said that just about any subject, save perhaps math, could be taught with comics and graphic novels. The only book I could find had single-page comics with a few follow up questions after each page. First, I looked for middle school math comics.
#PROBLEM CHILD COMIC MOVIE#
The Teen Titans and characters from Smallville and the first X-Men movie figured prominently.
#PROBLEM CHILD COMIC TV#
I had access to a wide variety of the worksheet sort of stuff early on in my career, and they were so mind-numbingly boring that I tried to jazz them up a little with the superheroes kids were watching on TV and in the movies at the time. I created Solution Squad to be heroes that I could use to replace the Marvel and DC characters I was using on my dozens of classroom activities. I didn’t set out originally to create a graphic novel, or even a comic book. It’s time to put Eratosthenes on equal footing. More kids these days know Tony Stark than know the name Eratosthenes. They’ve topped the box office for the better part of the last decade or more.
#PROBLEM CHILD COMIC PROFESSIONAL#
I’ve been doing it for 31 years, and I’m here to tell you that if you’re in front of a classroom in the old-fashioned way, the “sage on the stage” as it were, you’d better have a rhythm like a professional standup comic because your subject matter is going to seem dry to the casual learner.īut what if you don’t have that talent? What do you use to grab students’ attention if you don’t have snappy patter? Comics.