Dancing Euclidean Proofs

    As I started studying in education program and as I learn and experience more about teaching, I keep asking myself a question, so how do I make mathematics fun and engaging for students? Through 'dancing Euclidean proofs' activity, I realized that I never associated math with dancing ever before. This made me think about how I am used to traditional math classrooms and how I was reluctant to try something that I am not familiar with in a math class. I also realized that mathematics really have no boundaries of what you can do with math or what you cannot do with math. It is more about being flexible and capable enough to change one's perspective to incorporate different ideas and methods that may not be common in a math classroom. The activity also made me think about how other areas, such as music and drama, could be incorporated in a classroom and how different mathematical topics can be taught in different ways.

    I personally found the 'dancing Euclidean proofs' activity genuinely fun and enjoyable. It was fun to collaboratively create dance moves to prove a math problem, and it was fun to watch how other groups have approached the proofs through their dancing. To be honest, I had a big question mark when we were first told to create a dance routine to show a proof because I did not quite understand the relation between math and dance. However, as our group actually tried out the dance moves I was able to visualize the proof through the dancing. Being able to watch other groups perform and noticing how everyone expressed lines, angles, points, and arcs differently was also very engaging and enjoyable.

    I found this activity can be really helpful for students to perceive a math class to be fun and enjoyable. I noticed that students often associate math to be boring and content heavy that there are no exciting activities are involved in a math classroom. Introducing this kind of activity can be helpful to change those stereotypes about math and the image of traditional, boring math classroom into something more interesting and exciting. I think it could be challenging to get students engaged in these activities in the beginning as students might find the activities to be foreign and weird as they are not quite used to it. They might not understand or think how this can be related to math or how it is helpful for their learning in math and be reluctant to try out new activities they are not familiar with.