On Monday, Sep. 21 Math 7 traveled to Full Circle Resources in Sanford, NC. Full Circle Resources provides alternative equine assisted educational opportunities to students throughout the area. They use what is called Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) to help children experience learning in different ways than traditional classroom learning.

Details: Students reinforced concepts of decimals, fractions, ratios and proportions on a horse farm while interacting with horses. They applied mathematics to feeding horses, learning about horse anatomy and shopping at a mercantile market.

Activity 1: Riding a Horse– Students were led in a circle atop a horse, viewing parts of wholes from a different perspective. They completed fraction problems and fraction word problems while riding a horse around a “pie”, viewing a pie split into eighths and fourths. This allowed students to process fractions using a different part of their brain than in a typical classroom setting.

Activity 2: Painting a Horse– Students used non-toxic paint and to explore ratios by learning about the ratios of a horses body the way artists break down a horse in order to keep them in proportion. Students painted one of the 24 different sections of a horse while answer questions about fractions of that horse.

Activity 3: Mercantile Market– Each student received a scenario sheet based on historic horse “careers”.  Some were Cattle Drivers or Bronc Riders while others were Breeders or Pony Express Riders.  They were given purchase books and $100 to spend in 1800’s money, creating a budget and prioritizing their spending in order to meet the needs of their role.  Inside the store, the students had to purchase the needed items for their duties.  They had everything from saddles to beef jerky to hoof dressing to choose from. They had to stay in their budget and explain their reasoning for their purchases.

Activity 4: Feeding Horses– Students appled their knowledge of proportions and fractions to mixing food with the two ingredients required based on the weight of a horse assigned to them. Relevant information about each horse was availbe by each horse stall.