More math circles, multiplication, Math Future: Newsletter October 16

Posted on October 16, 2014 by

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Hi, I am Moby and I bring you the news about Natural Math. Send me your questions, comments, and stories of math adventures at moby@moebiusnoodles.com

In this newsletter:

More math circles for more kids!
Easy and cute multiplication puzzles
Live open Math Future event: Russian School of Mathematics (US Northeast and online enrichment)

Watch out for a BIG announcement tomorrow!

We’ve been very busy creating something really big and exciting! What is it? It is something many of you asked for over and over – an online course unlike anything we’ve offered before. Usually when you sign up for our courses, you receive plenty of ideas for math games and activities. In this course, you will learn how to create your own activities and how to lead your own math circles (and you will still get lots of ideas for math activities).

We wanted to make sure that everyone who enrolls in this course gets individual attention and support from us, so we limited the 8-week pilot program to 20 participants. We will send a separate e-mail with all the details of the course (including an early-bird registration offer) at 10am EST on Friday, October 17th. Don’t miss it!

Who leads math circles and why?

Anna Ignatov attended a math circle as a child, and then, as a mom, organized two circles for her two daughters and their friends. Since 14, Anna’s daughter Ida has been organizing math circles of her own: the third generation of circles, and counting! Why do they continue this tradition?

As Ida told us:

In school, we are taught that math is something boring, that we have to learn for some strange reason: you will need it in the future. Yeah, sure… It is nice to show the kids the beauty of math before they will learn once and forever that math is boring.

Read the entire interview with Anna and Ida in our 1001 Circles series and try a combinatorics game Anna and Ida shared with us.

Play this cute and easy multiplication puzzle with your kids

The new puzzle game Bojagi by David Radcliffe, which we review on the blog, is all about drawing areas. The rules are easy to learn, but Bojagi puzzles themselves are can be tricky to solve. Draw a rectangle around each number by clicking and dragging with a mouse. Each rectangle should contain exactly one number, and the area of the rectangle should be the same as the number it has. Rectangles must not overlap. That’s it!

Playful and gentle, this puzzle will help your kids see multiplication as more than just repeated addition. Take turns making puzzles for each other. Bojagi interface makes drawing designs, using algebraic formulas, or just playing with shapes easy. An online game, like Bojagi, that you and your child can play together is a great example of a new development in gaming called “intergenerational game design”. It is also one of the guiding principles we use in designing all Natural Math activities.

Speaking of multiplication games, come November we will once again be offering our most popular course, Natural Math Multiplication. We will announce the exact dates and registration details in our next e-mail.

Live open Math Future event: Russian School of Mathematics

On Wednesday, October 22 at 1 PM Eastern Inessa Rifkin, Irina Khavinson, and Nina Dubinsky will talk about the Russian School of Mathematics, one of the largest enrichment programs in the Northeastern US. Come and listen to a short presentation, chat with like-minded people from all over the world, and pose questions for the founders of RSM.

Math Future is an international network of people who care about mathematics education: researchers, developers, teachers, parents, and students. Since 2009, it has organized more than a hundred live online events with leaders of amazing projects.