Let’s Brainstorm!

We are getting ready to present MoebiusNoodles (the book, the site, and the concept) at a brick-and-mortar showcase on June 2. And we need your help brainstorming ideas for our table.

This year we decided to make Grids our theme. So our entire display will be about grids in math, science, life, universe and everything.

Right away we knew we wanted people who stopped by our table to walk away not just with our cards and basic information about Moebius Noodles, but with a tangible mathematical “thing” (a toy or a craft) that they could make themselves in just a couple of minutes. Another important idea is to show the connection between math and everyday life, especially outside of science and engineering.

Our space at the showcase will be pretty small, 4 linear feet or so. So we have to be mindful of that (of course, we can get creative and use the space under the display table, creating some kind of hide-away grid cave, hmmm). Finally, we’d like to stay low-tech and allow visitors to our display (both kids and adults) to touch, try and explore everything they see.

Some ideas we thought about include:

• Images of grids in art (beautiful), in engineering (i.e. map of Manhattan – a grid that, due to its scale, is not easily noticed by children), and in everyday life (household experiences or items).
• Grid games – Chocolate Fix by ThinkFun, Battleships, one or two of our own grid games, including Multiplication Towers and Make Your Own Grid activity.
• Examples of how a grid can be added to a non-grid game or activity and how that creates a different dynamics and introduces important math concepts (as in the photo above when we used a chess board in the “drive around town” pretend game)
• And somewhere there we’d like to have matryoshka dolls and a Star Wars alignment chart too!

What do you think? What would you suggest we add or remove? If you have activities and games that you created or played with your children that use grids, do let us know. If you have a post on your blog about grid math, post a link in the comments. And if you want to share images of grids, do post a link in the comments.