Move Through Math – a book by Janani Suresh Ram, a Coimbatore-based classical dancer, researcher and educator that brings together Math and Bharathanatyam, was released on Saturday.
It is a visual, interactive approach to math for children aged 5-10 years, and it was officially released by Radhe Jaggi, an award-winning classical dancer along with Manimekalai Mohan, Founder, SSVM Institutions; Smrithi Rekha Adinarayanan, Co-founder, Anaandi Foundation and Lavanya, Founder, Abhyasa Academy.
Speaking at the book launch, Janani said that ‘Move Through Math’ is a handbook that gives mathematical concepts through movement.
“It has nine chapters: set theory, patterns, shapes, number sense, counting, operations, data analysis, spatial temporal awareness, and measurement. And explores about 46 different concepts.”
“It is created for not just for parents, educators, and facilitators to work with children between the ages of 5 to 10, but for anyone who is interested in learning math through the body. The book is structured in a way to take the reader from curiosity to understanding in a four-step journey. In the book, you will see on the left-hand side is always a movement image.”
“Sometimes there is a QR code that gives you access to a video clip. And on the right-hand side is the key concept explanation that gives you the underlying vocabulary to connect to the mathematics that is shown in the movement.”
“And every facing page on the right also has an exploration trigger like a “try this,” “did you know,” or a fun fact to keep the reader engaged. And the chapter always ends with a project time activity that brings all of these concepts together as a project and has facilitator notes and extensions for further learning.”
“Meaningful learning happens when we connect across different modes: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. And in this method, we are able to embody the concept first, feel it, experience it, before moving on to abstraction and representation on paper.
This is just the beginning, and I want to continue to explore more in this intersectional space between movement and technology or engineering.”
This is a Resurrection of Our Culture’s Richness – Radhe Jaggi
Mathematics has become something that is alien to us, but it’s very much a part of how we sit, how we stand, how we breathe, how many times we breathe in a minute, or how many times we breathe in a day. In fact, if you go to the Chidambaram temple, every aspect of the temple is a very precisely calculated representation of the human body. These are sciences that the Indian ethos and culture has made into a visual representation or an auditory representation, so that it’s easy to relate to.
It was very much part of the culture, and somehow we’ve kept the culture and lost the science. So to have people like Janani make that connection again, and for us to be able to go back and revisit the science of why we do what we do, or the science of how our arts have come about, is really incredible, and it’s so inspiring because this is such a resurrection of what our culture has always had.
So I think it’s a really wonderful step in that journey, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how much more you can bring it into today’s modern education because it’s so relevant and so easy to relate to.
Manimekalai Mohan, Founder, SSVM Institutions; Smrithi Rekha Adinarayanan, Co-founder, Anaandi Foundation offered felicitation. Dr.J.S.Bhuvaneswaran, who is Janani’s father-in-law thanked the gathering for their presence.
