Nathalie Sinclair likens doing math to reading a good novel. In her eyes, both activities offer the chance to put aside everyday matters to delve into new worlds and ideas. However, she is well aware that many children develop negative associations with numbers early on. Determined to change this, she is dedicated to improving math education in Canada to give young learners the chance to discover for themselves the beauty to be found in creative mathematical activity.

“I’ve been drawn to the aesthetic character of mathematics since I was a child,” she says. “It’s exciting to find analogies that explain patterns and linkages between mathematical ideas.” Upon entering university, Sinclair naturally became a math major and was thrilled to discover that mathematics was a living, growing field.

Her interest in the intersection of math and technology began during graduate work with Jonathan and Peter Borwein at SFU’s Centre for Experimental and Constructive Mathematics. “I saw real mathematicians doing real mathematics with computers—something that had been entirely absent from my undergraduate mathematics experiences,” she says.  Around the same time, Sinclair became intrigued by mathematician and computer scientist Seymour Papert’s ideas about using computing as the centerpiece of alternative approaches to young children’s mathematical experiences.

Following her PhD research, she continued to focus on using technology, especially to explore theories of embodied learning, that is, how the physical body can play a critical role alongside the intellect during the learning process. Much of her research has been on the use of Dynamic Geometry software which allows users to construct and manipulate virtual mathematical objects as if they were physical entities, interpreting mathematical ideas of continuity and variation in a way that allows abstract ideas to become remarkably concrete. The software also offers opportunities for collaboration and discussion to further enhance learning.

Embodied learning in math took on new significance for Sinclair over a decade ago when she dramatically lost the ability to interpret letters and numbers in the wake of surgery on a brain tumor. Forced to relearn how to read and count from scratch, she found that using tactile gestures and tracing shapes with her fingers was crucial to her recovery. This experience would influence her in co-developing software that fused recent findings in educational technology, neuroscience and cognitive science, as well as her own extensive research exploring how computers can offer opportunities to visualize mathematical figures into a tangible math learning experience.

In collaboration with colleagues in Italy, New Zealand and the UK, Sinclair crystallized her research in the form of a unique iPad app called TouchCounts. “In my view, university research can’t just shape the development of research-based, innovative technology,” says Sinclair. “It must also enable effective dissemination beyond journal publication into actual classrooms where real students can experiment, ask questions, and delight in the wonder of mathematics.” 

Launched in 2014, the free app lets children use touchscreen technology to engage in embodied ways of counting and performing arithmetic by using fingers and hand-gestures. Touchcounts has been downloaded over 75,000 times across 10 countries, and has been translated into four European and two First Nations’ languages.