{"id":161023,"date":"2020-05-14T07:45:53","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T11:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=161023"},"modified":"2020-05-13T10:36:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T14:36:17","slug":"uconn-professor-uses-social-distancing-create-math-enthusiasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/05\/uconn-professor-uses-social-distancing-create-math-enthusiasts\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Professor Uses Social Distancing to Create Math Enthusiasts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Math may not be the first thing parents think of when trying to entertain their kids, but University of Connecticut associate professor of mathematics <\/span><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00c1<\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">lvaro Lozano-Robledo hopes to change that. He has been creating a series of videos showing kids engaged in distance learning how fun math can be. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alozano.clas.uconn.edu\/\">Lozano-Robledo<\/a> has created a YouTube channel called <\/span><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLYpVTXjEi1ochf4g9kFhxnT-aLyy52nup\">Algebra for Kids<\/a><\/span><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, which currently has 14 videos of basic algebra lessons. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The idea for the videos stems from the \u201cmath playdates\u201d Lozano-Robledo would lead with his daughters and their friends during the summer. The kids would come to Lozano-Robledo&#8217;s house and do math problems together before going off to play. With in-person playdates no longer possible, the parents in his neighborhood encouraged Lozano-Robledo to hold virtual meet-ups online. He started with a small Zoom session and then decided to begin recording videos of the lessons to share with others. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cMy friends were so grateful to have a little bit more to offer their kids,\u201d Lozano-Robledo says. \u201cI figured there must be many more families in the same situation.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Coming soon to a YouTube channel near you&#8230; from the creators of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AlgebraForKids?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AlgebraForKids<\/a>&#8230; stay tuned for&#8230; GEOMETRY FOR KIDS <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/geometry?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#geometry<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/homeschooling?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#homeschooling<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NXufSHG7Tz\">https:\/\/t.co\/NXufSHG7Tz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \u00c1lvaro Lozano-Robledo (@MathAndCobb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MathAndCobb\/status\/1253779574846095360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The colorful, animated videos feature Lozano-Robledo going through a lesson with his daughters or their friends using everyday items like pancakes, bananas, and hockey pucks. The video prompts viewers to pause at each problem to take time to solve them independently and then continue to see the explanation. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The channel enriches distance learning for children who are already learning basic algebraic concepts around third or fourth grade, he says. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe videos provide a foundation that will be really useful in math classes in the next couple years,\u201d Lozano-Robledo says. \u201cSince they\u2019ve already seen these things, they\u2019ll be more motivated when they see later them in class.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Lozano-Robledo says he plans to make four or five more videos on algebra and then to move on to geometry. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI\u2019ll keep going as long as social isolation does,\u201d Lozano-Robledo says. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">More than the concrete understanding of algebra these videos introduce, Lozano-Robledo wants to show how fun and exciting math is. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cIf anything, I just want to show kids and adults who are very happy to do math,\u201d Lozano-Robledo says. \u201cMy daughters and I are very enthusiastic about math.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Georgia',serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"margin: 0px; font-family: 'Georgia',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Follow UConn Research on<\/span><\/span><\/em><span style=\"margin: 0px; font-family: 'Georgia',serif;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FUConnResearch&amp;data=02%7C01%7Ctom.breen%40uconn.edu%7C1e8627a6b92a43e5684908d7ed3625f7%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C637238689125957999&amp;sdata=z0iyASkN%2F09jiDUCGuy6F81l5wlY60i%2BLgnhNgGjSdo%3D&amp;reserved=0\"><em><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: blue; font-family: 'Georgia',serif;\">Twitter<\/span><\/em><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em> &amp;<\/em> <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fuconnresearch&amp;data=02%7C01%7Ctom.breen%40uconn.edu%7C1e8627a6b92a43e5684908d7ed3625f7%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C637238689125957999&amp;sdata=52JQT6oy1HSZW3uzRQZ83b1igFXgzmUg7I6BuEqf06E%3D&amp;reserved=0\"><em><span style=\"margin: 0px; color: blue; font-family: 'Georgia',serif;\">LinkedIn<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">. <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UConn mathematics professor \u00c1lvaro Lozano-Robledo is responding to social distancing by creating videos that show the fun side of math.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":161024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2213,2076,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-161023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-coronavirus","category-research","category-uconn-storrs","post_format-post-format-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 18:14:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161026,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161023\/revisions\/161026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/161024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161023"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=161023"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=161023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}