Piggy Bank Award: Teaching the true cost of college
We are rewarding a math teacher today for helping her students understand the costs of college attendance.
Tess Vigeland: Our little blue plastic friend would like to meet his new owner in St. Louis. Louis.
Not at the fair, but in her classroom.
Laura Crowley teaches 7th through 12th graders at the John Burroughs School in the St. Louis suburb of LaDue. This month, she wrote an article in Mathematics Teacher magazine titled “My Favorite Lesson.” In it, she describes a project for high school juniors and seniors that requires them to figure out the true dollar cost of attending a college of their choice. After that, they have to come up with a plan to pay for it. Then they present the plan to their parents and to the class.
The result? She writes that students love the project and parents love that it gets their kids thinking about money and the value of college. So congrats, Ms. Crowley, perhaps our porcine friend can help the kids with their pigonometry.
If you’re marveling at the fact that we read Mathematics Teacher magazine, well, we don’t. But listener and math tutor Jane Gillette of Wakefield, Mass., does and nominated Ms. Crowley for the Piggy Award. Now, who do you want to nominate?