Farris honored as outstanding preservice teacher at Missouri mathematics conference

A Northwest Missouri State University student was one of three individuals honored recently as an Outstanding Pre-service Teacher by the Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM).

Emily Farris presented “We’re not Playing Around! Games can Grow Mathematical Thinking!” at the Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference in December. (Submitted photo)

Emily Farris presented at the Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference with Brian Swink (left), who also nominated her for the MCTM's Outstanding Pre-service Teacher award. (Submitted photo)

Emily Farris, a junior elementary education major from O’Fallon, Missouri, received the award when she attended the MCTM conference in December. She was nominated for the honor by Northwest faculty, including Brian Swink, a senior instructor of mathematics and statistics.

Farris also received an $800 undergraduate research grant from Northwest’s College of Arts and Sciences to support her presentation and conference attendance. The grant is intended for educational purposes such as board games and card games that may be used in future mathematics education courses at Northwest.

“I feel like just getting nominated by a professor on campus made me feel seen,” Farris said. “I’m just seeing that the work I’ve done with Mr. Swink does make a difference.”

Farris, who attended the MCTM conference for the second year, also co-presented a breakout session with Swink, titled “We’re Not Playing Around! Games Can Grow Mathematical Thinking!” Additionally, she helped increase the number of Northwest students attending the conference.

“The games she’d played during my office hours or methods classes weren’t just for fun,” Swink said. “These games had improved her number sense. She ran up to me at the conference (last year) to explain her discovery, then expressed a desire to lead a conference breakout session and promised to recruit more of her peers to attend.”

When Farris attended her first conference in 2023, she played math games during a breakout session and was surprised by how much the games improved her math skills. Motivated by that revelation, she felt compelled to research the effect of games on other students. 

“Over the past year, we started playing classic board and card games for fun but began to notice how these games reinforce mathematical content skills,” Farris noted in her grant application. “We decided we could teach a variety of skills with increased student engagement. Our goal with this project is to show teachers how games relate to mathematics, Missouri Learning Standards, and how they can adapt the rules of play to fit the needs of their students.” 

Farris and others played games to determine how they might relate to mathematics and then created a shareable resource for teachers with a listing of games and how they aligned with mathematical skills and Missouri Learning Standards.

Since presenting in December, Farris is gathering feedback from session attendees to acquire more information about how the use of games impacted their classroom practices.

“I just have so many new ways I can teach mathematics in the future,” Farris said. “I can implement those into practicums, into residency practicum and student teaching. A lot of them are newer than what I was taught as a kid.”

Farris says she has benefitted from the profession-based experience in Northwest’s Horace Mann Laboratory School, where she has practiced teaching mathematics. She also has visited Nodaway County schools for observations and activities with children. Away from Northwest, she gained experience working with children and families at the St. Louis Science Center.

In addition to her activity as a student member of MCTM, Farris is a member of Northwest’s chapter of the Council for Exceptional Children and has served as its treasurer for the past two years.  

“Emily shows amazing dedication to her studies and is not afraid to visit instructor office hours to learn at a deeper level. Emily’s learning extends beyond the classroom,” Swink said. “It was a thrill to see Emily achieve her goal to present to others after the 2023 MCTM conference experience.”