Hands-On Equations Blog: October 2008

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Press Release: Hands-On Equations in Africa & Asia

Hands-On Equations to be implemented in 1,000 classrooms in Africa and Asia

Contact: Henry Borenson, henry@borenson.com, 800-993-6284,
Or Patti Davis, patriciadavis@opportunityeducation.org, 402-660-2174

October 28, 2008--Borenson and Associates, Inc., an Allentown, PA firm known for its innovative algebra teaching system that enhances learning performance in U.S. schools, has been selected to provide its program to more than 1,000 classrooms in Asia and Africa.

Under the agreement, Hands-On Equations®, which is the name of the proprietary algebra program developed by Henry Borenson, will be implemented in 5th, 6th and 7th grade classrooms in Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal by Opportunity Education, a charitable foundation that provides educational tools for children in developing countries around the world.

“We are delighted to be chosen to provide our program to these students in developing nations,” said Borenson. “I’m confident the teachers in these classrooms will be very satisfied with the success they will see in their students.”

Borenson’s algebra teaching system uses manipulatives – similar to game pieces – to help students visualize an equation. Students use the manipulatives to make chess-like moves to balance an equation. “The program helps demystify the language of algebra and helps take an abstract concept and make it an intuitive process,” he said.

The Hands-On Equations® program has been introduced to over 25,000 teachers in the U.S. and is used in schools across the nation.

Opportunity Education chose to distribute Hands-On Equations® because the organization’s director of education, Patti Davis, had used the program as a classroom elementary school teacher, and had seen the improvement in her students’ abilities to learn algebraic principles and retain the skill set.

“I recommended Hands-On Equations® because I had had personal success using it in my classroom,” said Davis. “We chose the program because it is the easiest to understand, has the most applicability in classrooms in other parts of the world, and produces results.”

Providing the learning program to schools in developing nations supports the organization’s overall mission to supply curriculum and materials to classrooms in order to give children in developing countries the advantages of a U.S. education. “Providing the program and the materials the teacher needs to use to teach the program is imperative to help these countries meet their educational standards,” says Davis.

Opportunity Education was founded by Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade. It is a charitable foundation that provides educational tools for children in developing countries around the world. For more information, go to www.opportunityeducation.org.

Borenson and Associates was founded by Henry Borenson in 1986. Borenson had taught honors mathematics classes at the Stuyvesant High School in New York City. For more information, go to www.borenson.com.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Hands-On Equations Pre and Post-Tests for Level I

Complete instructions for administering pre- and post-tests for Level I are now available online. These instructions include a Summary Form for the teacher to record student scores and compare class results on each test, as well as class performance on each question.

On the pre-test, especially with students in grades 3 - 5, the scores are expected to be very low since these concepts and examples are not normally presented at these grades. The teacher should not be too surprised by low pre-test scores. If the teacher has gone through the training and implements the program as designed, he/she will see significant gains on the Lesson #6 post-test. This improvement is expected to be maintained as the students move away from using the game pieces to the pictorial notation in Lesson #7.

Pre-Test- 15 minutes