Category: Make & Grow

Inspired by Calculus Math Circle – Week 5

Young calculus bodies of revolutions

If we don’t teach kids to do actual calculations, what do we teach them in our calculus circle? And can it even be called calculus? Wouldn’t it be better to wait a few years until kids get older?  These are

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Multiplication: A parlor finger trick

Finger Reckoning Trick

Click numbers on the left and on the right to set up an example: This Flash applet teaches you how to compute times tables from 6 to 10, on your fingers. The trick was first recorded around 15th century, when

Posted in Grow

Inspired by Calculus Math Circle – Week 4

Foam islands

Even if five-year-olds can play with advanced ideas, can they do the next steps toward formal math? Can they actually integrate and differentiate? Are they capable of sufficient level of abstract thinking? These are the questions we are focusing on

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Semiotic Square: Easy-Complex-Simple-Hard

Tweet The semiotic square is a tool used for the structural analysis of relationships, developed by linguist Algirdas Greimas. We’re going to relate four different concepts in three different ways. First we want to rule out the incompatibilities. The diagonal

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