Mathematics

Math Curriculum: Investigations 

Investigations is a complete K-5 mathematics curriculum, developed at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is designed to help all children understand fundamental ideas of number and operations, geometry, data, measurement and early algebra.

Six major goals guided the development of Investigations. The curriculum is designed to:

• Support students to make sense of mathematics and learn that they can be mathematical thinkers
• Focus on computational fluency with whole numbers as a major goal of the elementary grades
• Provide substantive work in important areas of mathematics—rational numbers, geometry, measurement, data, and early algebra—and connections among them
• Emphasize reasoning about mathematical ideas
• Communicate mathematics content and pedagogy to teachers
• Engage the range of learners in understanding mathematics.

Underlying these goals are three guiding principles that are our touchstones as we approach both students and teachers as agents of their own learning:

• Students have mathematical ideas. The curriculum must support all students in developing and expanding those ideas.
• Teachers are engaged in ongoing learning about mathematics content and about how students learn mathematics. The curriculum must support teachers in this learning.
• Teachers collaborate with the students and curriculum materials to create the curriculum as enacted in the classroom. The curriculum must support teachers in implementing the curriculum in a way that accommodates the needs of their particular students.

Based on extensive classroom testing, Investigations takes seriously the time students need to develop a strong conceptual foundation and skills based on that foundation. Therefore, each curriculum unit focuses on an area of content, in depth, providing 2 to 5 1⁄2 weeks for students to develop and practice ideas across a variety of activities and contexts that build on each other. The units also address the learning needs of real students in a wide range of classrooms and communities. The investigations are carefully designed to invite all students into mathematics—girls and boys; members of diverse cultural, ethnic, and language groups; and students with a wide variety of strengths, needs, and interests.

For Parents:

As a parent or caregiver, you are your child's first mathematics teacher. In fact, you have probably been doing math together since your child was very young. Counting pictures on a page and singing songs helped your child learn about numbers and counting. Building with objects such as blocks and cardboard boxes exposed your child to geometric ideas such as shape, size and symmetry. Chores such as putting away the dishes and sorting laundry engaged your child in sorting and categorizing, which are important features of data analysis.

Once your child enters school, it is important to continue to support their growing understanding of mathematics. There are many different ways to help your child learn and appreciate mathematics, even if math was not your favorite subject in school. You can help your child by:

• believing that s/he can successfully learn mathematics
• expecting your child to work hard to learn mathematics
• sharing how you use mathematics everyday
• playing games that make learning fun and important
• solving problems together and exploring different ways to solve the same problems
• asking your child questions as s/he solves problems
• examining why solutions are correct and incorrect
• knowing how Investigations helps your child learn mathematics

supporting your child as s/he completes homework assignments