WHAT ARE MATHS FLASH CARDS?
Maths is like magic and those who know it are magicians because it is equally wonderful and deceptive, but this beauty is often left out when it comes to textbooks of mathematics which result in the even more somnolent teaching of math. Students often forget the formula but remember what the Hero of a movie said to Villain, it is simply because they cannot see what is happening in mathematics, they are unable to visualize the underlying concepts. More stress is laid upon theory and less on the methodology of explanation. If the content is more appealing and interactive then students will never forget what is taught to them.
The best way to bridge this gap between knowledge and interest of students in maths is by using flash cards. A Flash card is a template which showcases a certain problem in a very nice way so that students don’t feel burdened by the problem and at the same time they learn to solve that problem and the underlying concept in a playful manner. The fundamental principle of introducing flash cards is to make math more enjoyable, interactive and understandable to students.
A very simple example would be the addition of decimal numbers. Students often add natural numbers to decimal numbers and vice-versa which leads to a wrong result. It can be explained in a simple manner that natural numbers cannot be added to decimal numbers straight away, just like which cannot say that 2 horses and 5 hens are equal to 7 horses!
10.15 + 0.15 = 35.15 (wrong)
10.15 + 0.15 = 10.30 (right)
{5 horses and 2 hens} + 3 hens = 8 horses and 2 hens (wrong)
{5 horses and 2 hens} + 3 hens = 5 horses and 5 hens (right)
When students look at the question and think of the answer, they are engaging a mental faculty known as active recall. In other words, you are attempting to remember the concept from scratch rather than simply staring at the passage in their textbook. Active recall has been proven to create stronger neuron connections for that memory trace, since flash cards can easily facilitate repetition, they are the best way to fabricate various memory enhancing events.
After looking at the answer, they can assess themselves easily; this act of self-reflection is known as meta-cognition. Research shows that applying meta-cognition tends to ingrain memories deeper into your knowledge.
Textbooks of mathematics seem to be a huge pile of a lot of information which makes it difficult to extrapolate the necessary concepts whereas flash cards simply focus on one problem at a time; thus making it easier for the students to understand and clarify their problems one by one. This method can prove out to be a precursor to build a strong foundation in mathematics which will eventually lead to better result and good future prospects. These unique flash cards contain all facts for a certain mathematical operation, ranging from a very basic level to a good level of questions with a plethora of examples to learn from, making it easy to isolate certain family of facts for study. Thus, flash cards indulge students in mathematics in a very creative manner which does not seem to bore them and at the same point of time teach them the required concepts.
