Greensburg math teacher brings hospital into classroom

(GREENSBURG, Ind.) — Kristy Cobbs knows it isn’t easy getting students excited to learn math. 

She was a physical education teacher for 22 years before becoming a math teacher at Greensburg Junior High School last December. 

Her sixth and seventh grade students are currently learning about the Order of Operations and she came up with an unconventional method to teach the lesson. 

She transformed her classroom into a hospital setting and the kids went from being math students to surgeons. 

The students were tasked with solving math questions in order to successfully complete a medical operation on their patient. 

The patients were familiar names as the CPR dummies were celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Caitlin Clark and Christiano Ronaldo. Each station involved a different medical scenario that included a math lesson. 

“The kids have given a lot of positive feedback by saying this was the best class ever and that they want to do it again,” Cobbs said. “I know math is one of the hardest classes to create a fun learning environment.” 

As a gym teacher, Cobbs used to convert an entire gym into a putt putt golf course during Halloween. She has seen the benefits of hands-on, interactive learning with students. 

“I want kids to experience things and manipulate things to learn it. This is where this came about as I wanted to get them up and moving and doing something fun,” Cobbs said. 

Decatur County Memorial Hospital donated some of the items for the emergency room, while Cobbs also purchased items on her own. 

Her goal is to bring more hands-on learning experiences for her math students this year.