Robbinsville High students Lily Coggins and Sam Karket read their geometry story book to preschool students Andrew Davis, Miles Ruscito, Noah Martin, and Nihal Gurm and teachers Debbie McClain and Kim Robinson at Robbinsville High School May 13, 2015.
By Meagan Douches
Robbinsville High School geometry teacher Yasemin Kinak always assigned a rhyming children’s storybook project for her students to complete. It wasn’t until her own children expressed an interest in the stories that she thought the books may actually be of interest to preschoolers.
“I was grading storybooks one day and my son asked me to read them to him,” Kinak said. “He loved it! He would pick out which ones were his favorites. He wanted me to read them again and again.”
Her children were able to recognize the most creative and well-developed stories. This led Kinak to turn the storybook project into a competition in which her children, Aiden, 6, and Ayla, 4, decide the winners.
For the assignment, students work together to create a rhyming children’s storybook explaining specific geometry concepts in simple terms. The book must be 10 pages long with original artwork and easy to understand for children. Students with the top storybooks presented them to their peers and a group of preschool students.
The storylines for this year’s projects varied widely, though each incorporated aspects of geometry.
The top projects were, “When Triangles Are Sick” by Stephanie Wall and Natalie Lui, the story of a triangle’s trip to the doctor to get his angles examined, “Learning to Love Myself” by Sam Karket and Isabelle Barb, a tale of a quadrilaterals’ journey to self-love, “Trinity the Triangle” by Rachel Sepcic and Lily Coggins, an action story of a triangle named Trinity who uses geometry to develop her gymnastics skills and “The Dent” by Tanvi Gehani, Maria Uccategui and Giorgio Dimeglo, a fairytale romance of Prince Triangle as he seeks his perfect triangle match.
Kinak began assigning the storybook project to her students when she first started teaching at Leonia High School 10 years ago.
“I had an amazing mentor Mr. Klienman and a fantastic principal Mr. Bertolini,” she said. “They both encouraged my growth by allowing me to teach children the philosophy that math is fun, it is applicable and very useful. So that’s how I started giving the assignment to my students.”
On May 13, Kinak’s class welcomed a group of four preschool students from RHS’ in-school program, and they gathered around to read the winning stories together. Led by their two teachers, the preschoolers shyly entered the unfamiliar room. The high school students greeted them with smiles and excitement.
The preschool students were highly engaged in the stories and even asked questions. They were very responsive and seemed to grasp the geometry concepts as one student inquired about the triangle’s angles in “When Triangles Are Sick.”
The children leaned forward from their spots on the floor to get a good look at each picture and giggled as the stories unfolded with rhymes. After the first book was presented, one boy said excitedly, “Another book!”
When it was time for the final story to be presented in Powerpoint, the children requested to move closer to the projection screen for a better view of the presentation. Kinak’s geometry students smiled as they watched the preschoolers’ reactions.
It was the pinnacle of several weeks’ hard work for the high school students. Many said that they enjoyed using their imaginations to come up with unique storylines and rhyming prose.
“I think that coming up with the rhymes was the most enjoyable part,” freshman Sam Karket said.
Three of the four winners made their books by hand with colorful construction paper and original drawings. The fourth group decided to develop a Powerpoint version of their story, “The Dent” and they created images online to accompany their story.
“The best part was seeing the project come together,” freshman Lily Coggins said. “We had an idea of what we wanted to do, but we weren’t sure how it would turn out.”
The students were prompted to use their favorite stories and cartoon characters as inspiration for their projects. After deciding which geometry concept to focus on, partners worked together to brainstorm plot ideas.
For instance, for their story, “Trinity the Triangle,” freshmen Sepcic and Coggins immediately thought of gymnastics to explain flipping and rotations in their story. Others such as Gehani, Uccategui and Giodemeglo based their projects off of classic stories such as Cinderella.
Kinak is always impressed with the ideas that her students come up with and the level of creativity and thought put into the project. She said the storybook assignment has had a big impact on her students over the years.
“I think that they learn more about themselves,” she said. “Sometimes they don’t realize how smart they really are. They are also able to connect to the community which is great.”
Considering that advanced subjects such as geometry can be difficult and dry for many high school students, Kinak said her classes are excited to participate in the creative project. The competition even has helped her students grasp essential geometry concepts and become more interested in the subject matter.
“They have to explain the concept on a basic level so it helps reinforce what they’ve been learning in class,” she said. “The goal is that 10 years from now, they’ll remember it.”
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