Teacher Sharon Serano actually wrote a piece for the International Society for Technology in Education (or ISTE) explaining how she expertly used memes in her own math classes. “I told [my class] to use one of the many meme-creation tools available to make their original meme. To get the ball rolling, I gave my students a handout with a few examples of math memes that had been published on the internet. Other than that, I didn't give them much direction because I wanted them to figure it out on their own,” Serano explained.
“By the time the due date arrived, I was delighted to find 38 students had turned in more than 100 memes! And I was struck with a revelation: Memes are a great educational device for teachers and students alike to promote clarity, pedagogy and humor,” she continued.
Serano explained that she was so proud of her students for their expert memes that she handpicked the best ones and included them all in a video that she posted on her YouTube channel. “The Math Meme Project video became a hit and has been viewed thousands of times by people all over the world, including the U.S., Philippines, Hong Kong, South Africa, Malaysia, Australia, Austria, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, India, Honduras, Tunisia, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Czech Republic, Philippines, Finland, Spain, Qatar, Romania, Begium and Indonesia,” she shared proudly. This viral project has even inspired other teachers to task their students with the same assignment, and apparently, it always yields excellent results.
I don’t know about you pandas, but I’m feeling smarter (and funnier!) already after reading this list! Keep upvoting the pics that actually teach you something or make you feel like a star student, and let us know in the comments what your thoughts are on using memes to educate. Then, if you haven’t checked it out already, you can find Bored Panda’s last article featuring Educational Memes right here!
