This question was closed Dec 07, 2013 at 05:43 PM by Maria Droujkova for the following reason: The course is over.
Do you want to enroll in Problem Solving for the Young, the Very Young, and the Young at Heart?
Enrollment is now open for the mathematical problem solving course #mpsMOOC13 The last day to enroll is July 7, 2013. Details at: [
http://www.moebiusnoodles.com/mpsmooc13/][1] ![alt text][2] To sign up, log in at this site, and answer these questions. Then schedule a short video or voice conference at: [
http://mobysnoodles.youcanbook.me/][3] Question 1. Tell us about yourself. Who are you? What do you like to do? What games or puzzles do you play? How did you hear of this course? Do you have a site or a blog? Question 2. Tell us about the kids (or the grown-up members of your circle). Who are they? What do they like to do? What are their individual peculiarities? How old are they? Question 3. Tell us about your expectations. What is one thing you want from the course? Question 4. This course has three goals: 1. To help participants and their kids learn, 2. To make a book about problem-solving, and 3. To do research in mathematics education. Do you commit to adapt the ten problems, try them with local kids, report the results online, and analyze the reports? P.S. Scroll down to the answer box: ![Answer box][4] [1]:
http://www.moebiusnoodles.com/mpsmooc13/ [2]: /storage/temp/36-mpsmooc13_banner2.jpg [3]:
http://mobysnoodles.youcanbook.me/ [4]: /storage/temp/69-answerbox.png
I think the greatest gift we can pass on to our next generations is the confidence to try, to flail, to do something, to get it wrong and to get to it right, to rely on one's whits to "nut things out," to follow leads of any kind, to not worry about speed but to play with ideas and explore and discover, and to revel in the successes when they come. Youngsters are naturally adept at all this. Let's help them hold on to all that throughout their schooling years too!
1. I am a mother, homeschooler, and nurse(RN). We love soccer, other sports, art, reading, board games, and music. We are a BUSY active family. I heard about this course through my homeschooling friends. I do not have a website or blog (no time for that!). 2. I have 7 children ranging in age from 20 to 2 years old. My oldest just completed her Jr year at BYU, the next starts college this fall. My 14 year old will be a freshman in public high school in the fall (although homeschooled until grade 7). He plays piano, saxaphone, and competitive soccer. He struggles with math because he thinks that if the answer is close to correct it is enough. i'm always telling him I'm glad he's not figuring someones medication dosage or tragectory for some projectile as his standards would be leathal. My 12 year old will leave home school to start public school 7th grade this fall. She excels at math but doesn't enjoy it. She loves orgami, animals, insects, and the outdoors. She plays soccer, and struggles with piano and reading. The next 2 are elementary aged (7&5) and are homeschooled. They are energetic! They love soccer, puzzles, art,creative problem solving, adn imaginary play. The 7 year old loves to read! The and the last is just toddling about. Dad is the math guy at our house! He loves math and sudoku and logic. He shakes his head at the way I think through math problems often saying my method shouldn't work but I always get the right answer. :) 3. I hope to find new ways to engage my children in math. helping them enjoy math and see application of math. We just want to learn! 4. Yes!! we commit to all that!
1. I am a stay-at-home mom of 3, formally an Early Intervention Specialist. We're in our second year of educating at home. I do not currently have my own blog but do guest posts for Playful Learning on a regular basis. I enjoy being outside - hiking, biking, going to the beach, lounging, etc. I heard of this course through the moebiusnoodles blog. 2. My children are ages 5, 8, and 10. They all love being outside as much as possible, love nature and anything artistic/crafty. My oldest loves to write, read, and sew and is a wonderful role model for her younger siblings. My son enjoys the same things as well as constructing things. My youngest works hard to keep up with her older siblings but her favorite thing remains being with mom. 3. I am hoping for some engaging and meaningful math experiences and problem-solving opportunities. 4. Absolutely! To the best of my abilities..
1. I am a homeschool mom of 3, ages 7, 6, and 4. I am relatively new to homeschooling and am always interested in finding activities to make learning fun for my kids. We enjoy playing games like UNO, spot it, and war (card game). I heard about this site through the Let's Play Math blog. 2. I have 3 children, ages 7, 6, and 4. They enjoy playing outside, reading, and building with Legos. The 7 and 4 year olds enjoy challenges --- physical and mental, and are satisfied when they are able to accomplish something they once thought too difficult. 3. I would like suggestions on how to incorporate challenge and fun into their math studies. I would also like for my kids to see math as an everyday part of life not an isolated, irrelevant subject. 4. Yes
1. I've been a mathematics professor for the past 10 years, and math circle leader for a year. I have just taken a leave of absence from work to open a specialized school that will create a K-12 curriculum based on math circles' ideas. Here's our site.
http://mathecospirit.wordpress.com/ 2. I'll engage my four young children (ages 3 to 7) and my wife. 3. I hope to get ideas on how to shape my research questions as I move along my new path. 4. Yes!
I'm an English professor and writer. My two daughters and I love reading, board games, family dance parties, making up stories, exploring outside, family projects. My 13 year old is a honors student with many academic strengths and pleasures. For honors math this year at her school, she was enrolled in an online high school prealgebra class, a wonderful experience. She has participated in some girl-power STEM events at her school and loved them and was on its MathCounts team. My 8 year old has been with me for two years and bloomed amazingly over that time. She is a smart, hard worker, now up to grade level, who loves books, swimming, playing, cooking, making us laugh. Step by step, and this MOOC is part of my dreams for her--dreams of pleasure and confidence as much as skill. We will do our best to participate fully. Thank you!
1. I am a meditation teacher (before - owner of a shop for mothers, before - computer programmer). I've always loved math, and my husband and my son love it too. I like to solve puzzles, to play board games, to walk, swim and run, and to live in general. I am Russian and I live in Russia. My blog is
http://marik_.livejournal.com and my web-site is
http://omama.ru 2. I want to play math with my son (10 y.o.), my husband, my cousin, her children (6 and 2 y.o.) and our friends - a small circle of kids between 5 and 12 and some of their parents, too. Some of us homeschool. They like different things. Some of them like to think, some of them like to win, some of them like to understand, to be perfect, to learn etc. etc. I like the idea of adapting the material to different persons. 3. I'd expect to obtain more freedom in learning settings. 4. I commit. But I'll be absent from 17 to 24 of July so maybe I'll be late with one report.
Question 1. I am a homeschool mom with 4 kids. I was educated abroad and have a post graduate degree in International Commerce/Economics/Business Administation. I like to play board games such as Ticket to Ride, Cascassone, Saint-Petersburg and few others as well as read good historical novels, skating, badminton, sewing, baking, learning new languages. I read about you on well-trained mind forum. I am still developing my personal blog and web-site. Question 2. Our oldest daughter, Anya(10), enjoys figure skating, learning new languages, puzzles, robotics, math and logic as well as history and science. She is writing her own novel. Our son, Michael(6), enjoys ice-skating, math, science, puzzles, logic books and boardgames. He is very math accelerated. He bits my husband in "Set" game. My second daughter, Katya (5)likes ice skating, books, puzzles, science experiments and learning everything about electricity and circuits on her own. My third daughter is only 2 years old who has a mind of an engineer and trying to learn few new words in different languages. Question 3. I want my kids to have fun but also being challenged solving different problems through investigation, creative thinking and logic. Question 4. Yes.
Question 1. I am a mathematics professor at California State University Fullerton and I, with my wife, homeschool our three sons. I really enjoy playing board games (Carcassonne, Dominion, Pandemic, etc.), tennis, and talking about math. I read about the course on the blog, "Let's Play Math!". My personal blog is
glsr.wordpress.com and my professional site is at
bit.ly/adamglesser. Question 2. Our oldest son, Alex (7), enjoys tennis, Minecraft, Puzzles & Dragons, and board games. He started working with James Tanton's Thinking Mathematics books when he was five and is all over the place in terms of what he can do. Our middle child, Jonathan (6), enjoys bug collecting and gardening, and is extremely shy. He is very bright, but hasn't taken much of an interest yet in doing anything that seems "academic" (in start contrast to his older brother). Question 3. I want both boys to have fun and to leave with the impression that mathematics is about thinking through problems, not using algorithms and formulas. Question 4. Absolutely.
Q#1: I am a homeschool mom of 5 kids. I have always liked math and now am trying to figure out a way to help my children like it too. I heard about this from the Let's Play Math blog. Q#2: I have 4 boys and 1 girl, ranging from 10 down to 2. #1 boy (10) is a workbook-a-holic. He loves to get the answers right. I want to teach him how to look for more than one answer and think outside the box. #2 boy (9) is great at math, but hates it. He hates it when I ask him to write problems down, and to do tedious problems over and over. He LOVES to create his own math, so I hope to show him how math can be fun. #3 girl (7) is just getting started in math, I have not forced her into a curriculum yet. She loves math art projects. #4 and 5 are boys age 4 and 2. They just like to do anything interesting. 4 yr old especially enjoys puzzles and learning how things work. Q#3: The expectations I have are very general, I want to get my kids excited about math and thinking in mathematical ways. I want to teach them cause and effect, logic and how to predict outcomes. I hope to get out of this course some good activity ideas, but I'm also excited to participate in an open-ended process to help them see that we can create our own math! Q#4: Yes! We are excited to get started!
1. I’m mom of 3 children, one teenager and two toddlers. It’s so hard to say what I like to do for my own because we go waking with my babies, read the books with them, painting a little or sculpting with play-dough etc day by day. I like to try something new interesting activities. I got to know of this course from my friends page at my livejournal blog. 2. My younger kids are my daughter 3.5y.o. and my son 2y.o. The elder one adores the painting, reading the books, dancing, sewing and many others activities especially emulating me or other growns at our home. The son is copying her sister step by step. The daughter is very sensitive, impulsive baby opened for new experiences. The son is always ready to keep the company. 3. I’m expecting to get some ideas for playing with my babies. And may be my teenager will takes part too. I’d like my babies enjoy math from now and so on. I could have seen the beauty of math a couple years after graduating the University. And I see my elder son can’t see its beauty and I can’t help to him although he shows high results on mathematics in school. 4. I would get try. The format of this course is new for me and it takes a time to understand how it works.
bleh - I submitted the answers via the comment, not scrolling down to the bottom Question 1. I homeschool 9 kids and have a degree in computer science/math. I enjoy teaching Algebra 1,2 and geometry. I think math is fun (want to take a differential equations course just for the fun of it - I dropped it in college due to to the entire class failing every quiz / test). Heard about this on a blog. Question 2. 4 kids would participate from 9th grade down to 1st. They like Minecraft / world building games, reading and all play a stringed instrument. One kid likes to program. Question 3. I hope to bring enthusiasm to math - somehow I'm not conveying that the challenge can be fun. I can't believe out of 9 kids, none enjoy math. Question 4. yes, I do. I'd like to bring a math club to my homeschooling group.
mgrunk, I believe most people can enjoy "math of something," in large chunks: math of programming, math of puzzles, math of Minecraft. Also, most people can enjoy pure math ("math of math!") in small enough chunks. A few people love to spend a long time with pure math - like differential equations! My first diploma was in chaos theory, a branch of differential equations. I hope the kids of this course can adapt the problems to fit THEIR ideas of math!
#1) I am a homeschool Mom of 5, I have a degree in geography, I love to read. I always thought math was interesting. You are bringing order out of chaos! I do not have a website. No time! #2) I want to do this with my kids, the oldest is 12, down to 2. The 2 year old probably won't contribute much :) #3) My expectations. I want my kids to have the experience of playing with math. Not to just work on 'a problem' for a few minutes, find an answer, and move on, but to really think and play around with math. #4) I commit to do the problems and report back.
Question 1: I am a homeschool mom of five. I like reading, crafting and cooking. I like to play word games and solve crossword puzzles online and play board and card games with my children. Question 2: My three sons will be working with me. They are 13, 11, and 8. The oldest enjoys reading and video games, the next son enjoys science experiments and math games and the youngest enjoys writing stories, singing and dancing. Question 3: I'd like to start a math group in my neighborhood that will encourage curiosity and achievement in math. Question 4: Absolutely.
**Question 1.** I am a Canadian Math Educator who likes reading, video games and poker. I heard about this course through a colleague. **Question 2.** My two daughters, age 5 and 3, will be my circle. Both enjoy numbers, patterns, art and dancing not necessarily in that order. **Question 3.** I will be piloting a new Numeracy math class for struggling learners in grade 8 next September. I hope to get some ideas of how to adapt problems to teach number sense and basic operations. **Question 4.** Yes.
Question 1. I am a stay at home, homeschooling mother. I like to read, do recreational math (such as The Moscow Puzzles,) play with my kids, work with tools, and talk about philosophy and art with my husband. I think I heard about this course in a Moebius Noodles Facebook status update. Question 2. I have three sons who are ages six, four, and one. I plan to do this course with the four and six year olds. They are curious and enthusiastic. They like to play with cars, blocks, animals, and games. They also like to draw. The oldest is an avid reader and intense independent studier of his own interests. The four year old is highly imaginative, extremely verbal, and very hands on. Question 3. I want us to experience the joy of problem-solving together. Question 4. I absolutely commit to that. This is the sort of thing I love best.
Question 1: I'm a college math professor, and I have two kids (7 and 4) and volunteer in my local school district to help kids with math. I am very interested in reform efforts in education (K-16), and in working with adults and young people who hate mathematics. I have lots of blogs, but the most relevant one here is probably
http://liberationmath.org. Interestingly, I have a love/hate relationship with puzzles and games. I love lots of games and puzzles, and enjoy thinking about them and playing them with my kids and others, but I also struggle with feeling incompetent at both puzzles and games. Question 2: I'll be working with my kids, a 7 year old that is going into 2nd grade this fall and a 4 year old that is in daycare/preschool. The 7yo is very used to playing a variety of math games, so the 4yo gets roped into them as well. I'll also be working with my friend Alexa, who is trained as a montessori teacher, and I hope to find another couple of kids to work with as well. Question 3: I am very interested in talking with the other people who are taking the course and learning something about this collection of people engages with math outside of school. I am particularly interested in affective and relational issues that come up as we try to work with others on math. Question 4: Yes, absolutely! This seems like a very exciting project :)
1. I am a homeschooling mom and I love to read and find creative ways to learn and teach for all subjects - except for maths. My mathematics teaching is both dry and uncreative! I almost always resort to worksheets which is not my preference. We like to play with dominoes and card games. I heard of this course through the various blogs that I follow. I do not have a blog - I don't know how people have the time! 2. I have 2 kids currently in school - 6 year old and a 3 year old. Like most kids, they just to play. Lots of creative, imaginary play! When the 6 year old was younger he was quite drawn to math and did it quite naturally. Now, however, thanks to me he doesn't quite like it anymore! 3. I'm hoping that this course will help me be creative with teaching math - where to see it in everyday things/events. It'd be fantastic to see the spark in my kids eyes once again when we approach anything mathematical. 4. Yes! I'm quite excited to be apart of all this.
Q1: We play a lot of card games and some board games, we like to paint and to make things. A friend sent us the link to moebiousnoodles. Q2: At the moment, one 6 year old who likes energetic games, the outdoors, reading books and fantasy games. Q3: I don't have any expectations apart from having fun with my child and my friends while taking part. Q4: Yes, absolutely.
1) I am the father of 2 (aged 7 and 9) and the husband of one (wife.) I'm in high tech, running my own consulting/strategy firm. I'm passionate about math and math education for my children, and believe that we parents have to play an active role in providing guidance for our children in this regard, particularly as many professional "educators" are math-ophobes and unfortunately pass that fear on to the children they are supposed to educate. I don't play many games per se, though I enjoy crossword puzzles and in my youth I was a (too) serious pool player, bowler, and pinball junkie. I was lucky enough to meet Maria in person and have been eager to participate in her vision. I have a website and a blog, but as they are for my professional life and I like to keep that separate from my personal life, I'll not list them here. 2) My children are funny, wacky kids who know that they can get away with (most) of their mischieviousness if they can find a way to make me laugh. My son (7) is quite skilled at the mechanics of math, and my daughter (9) is more the logician/inference expert. My daughter is very much into music, art, and crafts, and my son eschews music in favor of art and design via an intense interest in Lego. 3) I'm looking for ways in which I can keep the math flame burning as a lifetime interest for both children. I view this course as a way to obtain some skills and methods to do so. 4) I am fully committed (in more ways than one:)
My 6-year old loves LEGOs, so we end up modeling many of the math problems with them. Can we model all the course problems with LEGOs? Or paper crafts? Or a fusion of both?
Q1: I am the mother of a seven year old boy who just finished public first grade. The school was a bad match, so I am beginning the homeschooling journey. By training, I am a botanist. I have always loved algebra and geometry, but never trig or calculus. I love to spend time out doors, play all kinds of board and card games, run, practice TKD, and read. My husband is an engineer and my mother-in-law is a math teacher. I would love to have their facility with numbers. Q2: My seven year-old son loves reading, Legos, and imaginative games. He has tremendous verbal ability, but gets nervous around numbers. He is usually willing to talk through math problems, but shuts down when he becomes frustrated. He hates rote memorization and worksheet repetition. He likes puzzles. Q3: I am looking for new angles from which to approach math. I want it to be fun! Q4: I am fully committed to finishing this program.
Ah, my 6-year old seems to be very much like your son. The difference is mine doesn't like puzzles. Well, let me correct myself - he likes them, but only if they are presented as real world problems (and Star Wars is real for him). So the story telling aspect of presenting a problem is tremendously important here. But also it's really cool to see how kids then incorporate the math they discovered into their own stories.
