When Nellie Perezchica was having a problem with her math homework, she, like many students in the San Diego area, turned to her television set for help.
Television?
Yes, television. MathVision, a San Diego area public television show, is designed to help students with math homework. The middle school student called in her problem, which was then broadcast on live TV and answered on the air with the help of an actual teacher.
El Camino High School math teachers Barbara Reed and Liz Brookins work a math problem on the air for viewers of "MathVision," a San Diego public television show designed to help students with homework.
"If five pesos cost 20 cents, how much will four pesos cost?" asked Nellie, who could look at her television screen and see teacher Barbara Reed standing at the math board ready to offer assistance.
"Do you know what a ratio is?" asked Reed, a teacher at El Camino High School and a member of the Oceanside Teachers Association (OTA). First she presented the problem in ratio format. Then she drew a representation on the board with little circles to stand for pesos. Then, realizing Nellie was still bewildered, she tried another tack. "Okay, let's take 20 and divide it by 5. How much is each peso?"
"Four cents," said an ecstatic Nellie. "So four pesos equals 16 cents."
Teachers have long considered television to be the great deterrent to homework completion. But not in San Diego. Every Wednesday and Thursday during the school year, students of all ages tune in to MathVision, which is broadcast by the San Diego County Office of Education. The call-in program provides an hour of televised homework help in math, along with three hours of telephone tutoring.
The program targets sixth-grade math through high school algebra, but has assisted callers of all ages, ranging from first-grade to college-level. Sometimes teachers even call in for help. The goal of the program is not to solve the problem for callers, but to help callers figure out the answer themselves. Sometimes a problem may need to be presented several different ways before making sense to the caller.
MathVision is carried live on all San Diego County cable companies and reaches more than 800,000 homes and 43 school districts. It receives financial support from ITV Television projects under a contract with Pacific Bell Video Services and by publishers who specialize in instructional materials and reference materials.
The set is brightly decorated in yellow, with props that range from a "function machine" to math manipulatives.
Reed, who has a bubbly on-air personality and dazzling smile, encourages students to call in with questions, then segues into Algebra Action, a regular feature that offers a 3-5 minute spotlight on an important topic in algebra aligned to state standards and the Stanford 9 test. Among the co-hosts helping Reed solve questions on-air is Liz Brookins, an OTA member who has taken a leave from El Camino High School to serve as co-director of the Algebraic Thinking Institute at University of California, San Diego.
Terry Mahaffey serves as telephone tutor, ready to help callers tackle any math problem that needs solving.
Occasionally the camera pans to the tutors to recognize a job well done. The tutors sit off to the side of the set behind a row of phones reminiscent of pledge night on public television. Among the telephone tutors offering students personalized assistance are San Diego Education Association members Terry Mahaffey and Carol Giesing. They work before and after the show.
After a few more calls, the show wraps up by posing the Problem of the Month, offering a grand prize of a graphic calculator to whoever sends in the right answer.
Reed and Brookins commute 45 minutes each way to do MathVision, which they say is more for love than money, since they earn little for their efforts. The two math teachers have been with the show since it began six years ago. Reed auditioned for the show first and was accepted. She was so nervous, she asked Brookins to drive her to the first taping. "A funny thing happened," recalls Brookins. "One of the people they had selected was not able to do it. They asked me to audition, and I got the part."
The show has given them celebrity status in the San Diego area. "I'll be out in the community, and people will come up to me and say, "I've learned so much from your show," says Reed. "People watching it aren't just middle school students. I've had parents, grandparents, teachers and students say they are just drawn to the show. Adults have come up to me in the supermarket and said that they never really understood math before, but now they do. It's very worthwhile."
"This show provides a service," says Brookins. "Kids need this show, because very often they are lost. Sometimes they sit down with their homework and don't have a clue where to begin. Their parents aren't home to help, or they don't know a lot of math."
She is seeing huge gaps between what students know and what they have been assigned, which she attributes to the state standards. "This year is different," she says. "They don't seem to have the prerequisite skills and are being placed in classes where they don't have enough of a foundation to understand what's happening. They may be doing polynomial functions to the second or third degree, but they don't know what exponents are. Teachers are being asked to teach more and more, and may not have time to lay all the groundwork so more kids are lost."
In such cases, says Reed, "the best thing to do is to try to give the child encouragement and point out what they need to go back and work on."
Some problems stump the teachers, who often collaborate on air. "It's good for them to see we don't always have the answer right away and need to think about it," says Brookins. "It's like real life. You can't solve all problems on a TV show. There is not always instant gratification. That's not the way math works."
Naturally the show gets some crank calls. "Sometimes I can tell as soon as I say hello," says Reed. "They may have a deep voice and they're supposed to be in seventh grade. One time a student gave me an algebraic fraction to simplify, and there was no way that could ever happen. He went on and on like the Energizer bunny, even though the problem made no sense. Fortunately, most callers really need our help."
MathVision is educational television at its best. However, like many public television shows, it operates on a shoestring and needs funding to survive. Reed, Brookins and the producer are constantly on the lookout for sponsors. They have been turned down by large, well-known corporations who tell them, "We don't do educational television."
"It's very upsetting, because this show is so positive," says Reed. "We're disappointed there is not much support. Television can be such a wonderful way to influence kids and help them with their lives."
