Pi Day Jokes for Natural Math Circles

Pi selfie

Pi mirrored is Pie

Mirror photo by Envision

i 8 sum pi

Pi-rate

The Pi Piper

Pi-ku

Pi tip

Wife of Pi

Pi-thon

Like It? Share It.
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Posterous
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
Posted in A Math Circle Journey

Calm Math Playlist: Learn to lead online groups

Do you want to lead online math circles or casual math playdates for friends and family? Join Dr. Maria Droujkova and math friends for a live online event. We will explore a few activities together. We will also share online teaching tips, and crowdsource a playlist of math activities that feel calm.

  • When: Wednesday April 1 from noon to 1 PM EDT
  • Math topic: start with symmetry (algebraic geometry) and bridge to more
  • Education topic: emotional support via mathematics  for children ages 5 and up
  • Who: parents, teachers, and math circle leaders
  • Where: Natural Math Zoom
  • Supplies: plain paper, graph paper (print here if you need it), scissors, colored pencils or markers, reliable internet, microphone

Natural Math Online

After you register, you will receive an email from reach.out@naturalmath.com with a link to login instructions. If you can’t find the email, send a message to that address and we’ll figure it out. Please log into Zoom on the device you will use for the event and check your audio and video systems at least fifteen minutes in advance.


About

Natural Math makes advanced mathematics accessible to everyone in kind ways. How? At Natural Math, families with toddlers do projects on symmetry and tessellations; four-year-olds design function machines; and six-year-olds build fractal models of infinity. Our motto: “Math is what you make of it.” Natural Math has more than two decades of proven track record in curriculum development, experience design, and publishing.

Dr. Maria Droujkova

Dr. Maria Droujkova focuses her research and development efforts on learning communities, informal education, online education, advanced mathematics for young children, and game design. She holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from NCSU, and M.S. in Mathematics from Tulane. Maria is the founder of Natural Math, an educational design, consulting, and publishing organization started in 1996. Her approach to teaching focuses on the easy complexity (such as calculus for five-year-olds), openness, and kindness. She co-authored Moebius Noodles and Avoid Hard Work, popular books with innovative math activities for parents, teachers, and math circle leaders.

Like It? Share It.
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Posterous
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
Posted in A Math Circle Journey, Grow

Ying is here; Five Fabulous Activities is next – some math for every age! Newsletter February 2020

First of all, congratulations! And thanks! After a successful crowdfunding campaign, Ying and the Magic Turtle is published and available. In that story book, readers experience mathematics, problems solving, and the rewards that come with perseverance. Children ages five and up, parents, and teachers can enjoy this retelling of an ancient legend for its rich beauty in mathematics.
Ying and the Magic Turtle

Read more about the book and print out bonus magic square puzzles for your family, math circle, or class.

Ying Puzzle Card


Five Fabulous Activities – crowdfunding ends February 29

Next up! Tenth book to be published by Natural Math, Five Fabulous Activities for Your Math Circle, is up for crowdfunding!

A math circle is any group of people gathering to explore mathematics—it could be in your home, in school, or even online. Math circle activities are often interactive, exploratory, flexible, open-ended, and social. How does one make it happen? Five Fabulous Activities by Samuel Coskey, Paul Ellis, and Japheth Wood, veteran math circle leaders, will help show you how. This book is a guide and a collection of recipes for anyone who wants to help others discover joyful and challenging math. 

Five Fabulous Activities

The book is primarily for middle and high school students. Each chapter also includes activities and explanations intended for younger math friends. The underlying mathematics can be of interest even to adult learners, including the authors!

The funding campaign quickly reached its goal. At the current stretch goal, for every $100 we raise, we will donate a copy of the book to a math circle serving groups of people who are underrepresented in STEM fields.

Check out this fabulous new book and preorder it for your family or math circle!

 


Our math friends shared these function machines. Can you guess what they do?

Function Machines Animals

Like It? Share It.
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Posterous
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
Posted in Newsletter

Ying is 72% funded; try magic square activities – Newsletter August 13

Ying and the Magic Turtle by Sue Looney is a new story book for children ages 5 and up. It is about magic squares, and is inspired by an ancient Chinese legend. Natural Math hopes to publish it in November, in time for the winter holiday gifts. We are crowdfunding it on Kickstarter. For practical purposes, crowdfunding works like a preorder. Math friends who contribute to the campaign also receive extra prizes, and connect with the book’s author and crew.

Why puzzles?

There are some recent additions to the campaign page. Check out the new variable prize, where supporters can choose the number of books they want. Thank you for the suggestion, Tina G! There are also new answers to several questions, such as, “How do you go about using a story book in a math classroom?”

Question (mind the book spoiler): – The emperor eventually invites Ying to join the team working out engineering solutions to the annual floods. Does solving abstract puzzles like magic squares really help with applied mathematics?

 

Ying and the Magic Turtle mock-up

(This is a page layout with Ying and her, sadly empty, fishing pole, from when the river flooded.)

Answer: Solving puzzles such as magic squares leads to uncovering the general structure of a problem type. There are properties that are true of all magic squares that can be unpacked. At first glance they are simple, but their beauty is in the complexities of understanding how it is that they “work”.

When we change one number in the magic square, that affects the row and the column and ultimately the rest of that SYSTEM. We can use that property to make a point about system thinking. We can’t solve the magic square cell by cell, but have to consider it as a whole. Likewise, rivers, rains, and the weather are systems that have many components all affecting one another.

Ying demonstrates for readers the qualities that are required for engineers and designers, such as perseverance and being intellectually brave. Young children can also start their STEM journeys with puzzles. The beauty and challenge of problem solving will help them develop lifelong skills necessary in the STEM fields.

Crowdfunding progress: Thank you, math friends!

There are 10 days left on the book’s crowdfunding campaign, with about 73% of the target goal gathered by the supporters – THANK YOU! If you contribute, you receive the book plus special prizes, and your name in the book’s dedication pages. You can also dedicate your contribution under an alias, list your whole family, or put your math circle, school, or business name into the book.

We are very grateful for each and every contribution. Starting at, and including, the $1 level, the contributions do add up and make the book possible. Each contribution is a voice of support on a long and difficult journey from the concept to the finished book. Each is a vote of confidence that warms the hearts of the book’s team. Each supporter sparks hope for the future authors who contemplate if they should write a math book one day.

In addition to the story, the book has materials for teachers and parents to explore magic squares with children, and to help children pose their own problems. Here are some bonus activities to try.

1,2,3 Solve!

Smaller numbers make for faster puzzles, accessible to younger children. Arrange these numbers:

1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3

in the nine boxes below so that each row and column has the same sum.

3x3 grid

Franklin square

Magic squares are a mathematical puzzle that has fascinated learners throughout time, including capturing the attention of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin created his Magic Square in 1771 and later wrote, “I was at length tired with sitting there to hear debates, in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and which were often so unentertaining that I was induc’d to amuse myself with making magic squares or circles” (Franklin 1793). Here is his famous Franklin Square:

Franklin Magic Square

What do you notice about the Franklin square? What do you wonder? What patterns do you see? Send your ideas, magic squares, and questions our way to share with the Natural Math community!

Please support Ying and the Magic Turtle campaign

Like It? Share It.
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Posterous
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
Posted in Make & Grow, Newsletter