Life

HAMILTON — It's like an interactive computer, big-screen television Game Boy, and students at Harrison Elementary love it.

Students at the school are learning math through one of the most cutting-edge education tools on the market — an InterWrite School Board.

The 60-by-72 inch white board offers a wealth of information, said math teacher Becca Ware, including bringing 3-D figures, number lines, fraction bars and graphs to life.

Children at this age are very visually and technologically oriented, Ware said.

"And when they can see and manipulate math concepts, they can better understand it."

Students enthusiastically agree, describing the board as "awesome," "cool" and "like a Game Boy."

"It's a funner way of learning math," said Raven Mathews. "All you have to do is click a button."

Students can interact at their desks with work on the board by remote control clickers.

"It's nice," said classmate Astrid Gomez. "Math is my favorite subject because I love numbers. It helps us because Mrs. Ware writes the numbers on the board and we can see it."

The board also allows Ware to do instant assessments.

"If I give them a quiz, instead of pen and paper, the students can use the clickers to answer the questions and their results, as a class, appear on the board instantly," she said. "If students are struggling with a specific area of mathematics, I can focus on that area as a class.

"It's a great experience because learning can be hands on and interactive."

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2158 or lebbing@coxohio.com.