How Rudy (BMATH) and Beverly (BA 1968) Neufeld understand math through play

Friday, December 8, 2023

By Larry Cornies 

On a Saturday morning in late September, Rudy Neufeld is sitting at a small table in a meeting room inside London Public Library’s Byron branch. Standing around him are 13 elementary school pupils, their eyes fixed on a tiny KaiBot, no larger than the palm of a hand.  

Rudy goes through the basic steps of instructing the little robot on how to move, using nothing but small cards that are spread out on the table. He’s doing it upside-down, from his point of view, so that his young audience can get a closer look. 

Once he’s arranged the cards in sequence and scanned them into the tiny machine, it comes to life. It moves forward, LED lights flashing and gears turning. Then it turns left, instead of right. “Oops, that’s a mistake,” Rudy says. “But remember: mistakes aren’t a bad thing — they’re learning opportunities.” 

Read the full story from Conrad Grebel University to learn more about how Rudy and Beverly went from the first cohort at Conrad Grebel to internationally recognized math educators.