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April 21, 2004
Up with Math
Up with Math! Direction Matters
Ethan Roth, 11, Kansas City, Mo.
Finalist, Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, 2003
Project background: Ethan noticed that he was making "careless errors" on math problems when they were presented horizontally and that he was much more successful when the problems were written vertically. He wanted to see if his fifth-grade classmates were having the same experience.
Tactics and results: Ethan created two math tests using grade-appropriate problems. Two versions of each test were made—one written in a vertical format and one written in a horizontal format. Each of the four, 10-minute tests was given to the same students on four different days. Ethan received approval for the project and had informed-consent forms completed by his 28 participants and their parents before testing began. His math/science teacher supervised the testing.
When the tests were scored, Ethan found that the vertical format resulted in fewer errors. More than 65 percent of the students scored higher on the vertical tests. Twenty percent of those students scored significantly higher, missing at least four of the same problems when they were written horizontally.
Ethan hypothesizes that this could be because the horizontal format does not allow space for scratch work and requires students to rewrite the problem.
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