Inspired by Calculus: Thursday Math Circle Week 1
This Math Circle report has three parts. The first part summarizes “whys” behind club activities, and gives ideas on what to do at home. The second part has samples of what the group said and done, from Yelena McManaman. The third part has links to resources.
I will keep adding our pictures to a set on Flickr. Thank you for the photos, Lynna Mattia!
The main three principles:
1 – Make math your own, to make your own math
2 – Have adventures
3 – Do it with friends
Posted in Grow
Do your little kids draw grids?
What do you see when you look at drawings by little kids?
For example, grown-up artists noticed that many young artists draw big heads with legs. The more people talked about these shapes, the more meaning they found. By now developmental psychologists developed big theories of development around these simple observations: “Tadpole drawings appear during the pre-schematic stage…”
Grown-up mathematicians noticed that many young mathematicians draw grids. Round grids, square grids, grids within grids!
Have you kids made any grids? Please send us pictures and stories!
Here are some masterpieces from Michael Kelly.
Michael writes:
Our youngest son Francis began drawing pattern grids and intersecting lines when he was about 3 years old. He seemed to draw in a way that resembled his early language learning. He didn’t draw discrete objects but would rather make patterns and connections across the whole space. In a similar way, in his speech he did not repeat individual or ‘favourite’ words, but he often copied the cadences of, or flow within, a sentence.
Strapped into his baby seat in the car he once interrupted a stream of jokes and laughter between four adults which he had been silently witnessing. When he had noticed the pattern he gave his own version of a line of ‘speech’ followed by his own appreciative laughter. His timing was great. Everyone stopped… none of us had considered how a 15 month old child might be making sense of the vocal expressions and social conventions of our adult friendships!
Franny’s drawing showed awareness of relationships between local shapes and overall design, and the negative shapes were sometimes integrated too.
We already have a bit of theory on grids and kids. Grids are to individual cells as paragraphs are to words (in Michael’s example), or songs are to notes. The whole grid is bigger than the sum of its parts, and kids think in terms of the whole of the thing! But some children start by drawing individual cells next to one another, like so:
Even older kids and teens may draw individual cells when they work with new grid ideas. Here is another example from Math in Your Feet:
At other times, children make grids by having long lines cross in many places, so the cells multiply:
We have four chapters of grid games in the Moebius Noodles: Adventurous Math for the Playground Crowd book. Check them out!
Posted in Make
6 BIG adventures in #StreetMath
I am volunteering at elementary school recess, and was wondering if you can recommend some math games for outdoors – Anna Belaschenko, via the Moebius Noodles newsletter.
Here is a collection under the #StreetMath tag from our Facebook updates.
1. Sequence hopscotch
Use the old favorite to play with new sequences. How about counting in binary, or using Fibonacci?
Invite kids to make up their own sequences and hopscotch patterns.
Pictures by Dave & Anna Douglas and Dr. Mike’s Math Games for Kids.
2. Murals or graffiti
Make a bold statement that math owns the place! Draw large math diagrams, fractals, or Fibonacci spirals on walls. If you don’t want a permanent graffiti, prop up a particle board or cardboard next to the wall, or simply tape large paper to the wall. Even easier, you can draw sidewalk murals in chalk.
Ellie Balk writes on good.is:
For the last four years, Green School math teacher Nathan Affield and I have teamed up to create murals that combine art and mathematics to empower students and connect them to their communities in Brooklyn, New York. In 2011, Affield and I created a project where a math class surveyed the whole school on how they were feeling, what color that feeling represented, where that feeling fell on a scale between one and 10, and what time of day the data was recorded. The students then aggregated and color-coded the data to create a 150 histogram covering the back wall of the school. At first glance, the mural looks like an abstract, colorful cityscape. It is only when the mural is “read”, that the data can be understood.
Pictures by Ellie Balk and Visualize Pi Project.
3. Geometric paths
Invite kids to build spiral or labyrinthine paths between pretend-play houses, or within pretend-play parks.
Children can draw their paths in chalk, mark them by hand or foot in sandboxes, or line up branches and pebbles.
The paths can be large enough for kids to walk, or small enough for pretend-play with toys. Gently introduce inspiring “math building codes,” such as fractal branching paths or classical labyrinths.
Pictures by Joseángel Murcia of Tocamales, Mick Kelly and Wikipedia.
4. Scavenger hunts and Math Treks
Help the kids grow their math eyes!
Pick a math concept and invite everyone to find it. Can you see multiplication in how tree branches grow, in rows of windows, or in kids’ own fingers ( hands times 5)? Alternatively, invite kids to find as many math ideas as they can in one object.
Beside multiplication, trees also have symmetry (in leaves), fractal-like branching, tessellations of cells or bark and so on. Invite kids to show the ideas they find with gestures or “human sculptures” for awesome photo-ops!
Architecture can be particularly mathy!
Pictures by Mathematical Association of America and Wikipedia. Video by Natural Math.
5. Play with yarn, fabric, and ropes
Develop spatial reasoning: turn one-dimensional and two-dimensional materials (yarn, fabric) into three-dimensional creations.
After kids explore freely for a while, you can introduce mathy inspirations, such as macrame patterns or formula-based string art.
Check out pictures and videos of yarn bombing, a community movement to cheer up local spaces.
Pictures by Cathy of California, Sense of Wonder and Wikipedia.
6. Build giant models
Math feels different when you can climb it! Math is ten times cooler when it takes ten people to lift it!
Learning through the whole body activates more areas of the brain. You can bring boards and large boxes, or use found objects such as tree branches. Paper works too. Kids can invent their own shapes, or build models of surfaces and polygons that are famous for their beauty.
Pictures by Albion College and Vi Hart on Wikipedia.
Posted in Grow
Inspired by Calculus: Tuesday Math Circle Week 1
This is a quick report about our new local Math Circle. To all who asked, yes, we will produce online courses and organized materials for this content! Meanwhile, there will be these reports.
On the first meeting, Circle participants introduced themselves and started to explore infinity. Here are some purposes (whys) that drive our activities. I also suggest things to do at home – IF you feel like it, and IF it comes up. Be gentle, have fun.
The main three principles:
1 – Make math your own, to make your own math
2 – Have rich adventures
3 – Do it with friends
I will put all photos into this set on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26208371@N06/sets/72157636116988425/
Posted in Grow
