This math mural is on a high school wall, somewhere. It works because it has a street art vibe. Not a grade school math book look. That’s cool.
Why not do something like this for your school.
Posts Tagged ‘inspiring’
3. Everyone Hates Maths Anyway
October 25, 2017
The Complaint: Everyone Hates Maths Anyway
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The Cause:
Students absorb maths fear and loathing from peers, siblings, parents and the culture. eg.
From the TwoFatDudes blog.
The Solution:
Invite interesting guest speakers to talk to students. Other subjects do this. Bring in a cool young ex-student and attitudes can change, fast.
Otherwise show them these videos. The first video especially is AWESOME and totally, totally COOL.
Cool Guys talk about Math:
Here are their blogs:
Patrick JMT
Maths stories about death, tragedy and comedy in maths
Tyler De Witt
On Scientific Notation
On Significant Figures and using significant figures this video has had 1 MILLION hits.
Paul Andersen Bozeman Channel
Structure and Function of the Brain
7b. Middle School Maths Photo Scavenger Hunt
September 3, 2017The Complaint: Maths is really SCARY!…………….
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The Cause:
Some students think maths is always right or wrong and they are scared of making mistakes.
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The Solution:
Go on a Maths Photo Scavenger Hunt. There is no right or wrong. Just see what maths you can find out there.
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The Challenge:………………………………………………………
Can you find the following maths out there somewhere and bring back photographic evidence?
Topics:
Multiple Topics
The Challenge
Maths Photo Scavenger Hunt Worksheet PDF
More interesting Maths Selfies here.
9. I Hate Answering Questions in Class: BUSTED
August 10, 2017
The Complaint:
9. I Hate Answering Questions in Front of the Class
The Cause:
Students worry about getting the answer wrong in front of the class because they believe that maths answers are always either RIGHT or WRONG.
The Solution:
The maths we need in the REAL world often involves open ended questions. Think of finding directions on Google Maps. What is the best way to get from A to B? One route might be shorter but include tollways another might involve longer distances but less traffic.
Text book problems are often repetitive with RIGHT answers at the back of the book. But in the real world maths problems nearly always involve THINKING. eg. A building design might require specific engineering maths. Now add costing! That’s an open question. There are many options. Maybe the costing will then change the engineering. Build 20 stories instead of 25.
Thinking Outside the box in Education: Info and Toolbox: here
Prof Peter Liljedahl, Faculty of Edu, Simon Fraser Uni, Canada, advocates open ended questions in the maths classroom.
Here are some of his examples for Year 7 -9 (Download pdf file at the link):
You have won tickets to a concert in Toronto but must plan your trip using flight times to arrive at the concert by 9pm.
You are in a bike race and have to use a street bike and trail bike, but one bike must be left somewhere on the route. You travel at different speeds depending on which bike you use. What route do you take? (A basic map is included.)
Something inspiring:
Maths is often about playing around with answers. This is how play led a class of 12 year olds to produce a peer reviewed research paper published in a science journal.
1. Middle School Madness: BIG MATHS
June 12, 2017
Community Maths can involve the school community or the wider, local community. The aim is to get maths out of the classroom and make it a hands-on experience.
Set up displays, posters, demonstrations or art/maths projects in your school library, gym or school yard or take some interesting maths to the local library, strip mall, town hall, local gardens or shopping mall. It will mean planning the project, collecting the materials and making a phone call to the local, say, librarian, but libraries, for instance, welcome community involvement.
Here are just some community maths project ideas.
MATHS POSTERS
Major maths conferences around the world have poster displays. So why not a display of students maths posters in your school library or local library or even a nearby shopping mall. And students should be present at allocated times to explain their poster to other students, parents or members of the public.
Roosevelt Middle School students Jacob Klausner and Oliver Adelson WEST ORANGE, NJ, who were finalists heading to the National MathCon Competition.
Some of the best middle school maths posters can be found at MathsCareers, UK. Here are some posters from the 2016 competitions.
Winner 9 – 11 years Maths Poster Competition
Fatimah Patel Preston Girls High School
Runner Up 9 – 11 years Maths Poster Competition
Maja Kowalska McAuley Catholic High School
Winner 12-13 years Maths and Music Poster Competition
Laeticia Junanto Bancrofts School
MATHS DEMONSTRATIONS
Maths students can construct displays that involve interesting maths. The most amazing maths dispalys Mathspig has seen were at the 13e Salon Culture & Jeux Mathematique in Paris. Here is LAGA Phd student Attouchi @ the 13e Salon Culture & Jeux Mathematique in Paris.
She was showing students how to use a graph to create anamorphic projections. More detailed instructions here!!!
Palestinian Maths teacher Daina Taimina has many zany ideas. You’ll more Creative Maths ideas here.
Mentalist Maths … OK. This may include some Card Tricks … but they’re amazing. You’ll find 10 amazing Mentalist Math Tricks here.
Make some interesting cubes here.
Give students a variety of maths challenges they have to solve
like these Maths Mystery Box Challenges here.
Or let students explore some of the inspiring maths websites and pick a project. You will love the amazing German website IMAGINARY. It’s in English and has some fascinating videos!!!!!
Perhaps students could construct double pendulum like this one demonstrated at the MiMa-Museum, Oberwolfach, Germany. Mathspig can’t stop watching it. Fascinating!!!!!!! The double pendulum has some demanding trigonometry, but at the middle school level the 2D graph traced by the lower pendulum is fascinating enough (Below). And maths can provide equations for this movement. That’s impressive.
Crazy Ways to Make Middle School Maths Cool
November 11, 2016
I started my maths workshop in Hamburg by stirring up some friendly rivalry. And what better way to do this than by using statistics.
Which is the biggest country?
Australia is 21.5 times the area of Germany. So I counted off 22 workshop participants and pointed to one saying ‘Your’re Germany! Ha!’ Here’s another way to compare areas:
Which country has the largest population?
Germany has 3.5 times the population of Australia.
But the really interesting questions are:
Who drinks more beer?
Who eats more meat?
Here are the answers to these and other interesting questions from the introduction to my workshop with apologies to Brisbane and Perth:
Here are some amazing ways to make middle school maths AMAZING:
1. Defronting the Maths Classroom
2. Amazing German Maths Blog
3. m&ms and Exponential functions
4. Take a Mandelbrot Set Selfie
5. Best Fun with Algebra Ever
6. The Multi-legged Beast that Walks
7. Maths You Hold in Your Hand
8. Are you Maths Blind?
9. Real World Maths Selfies
10. Magical Music Machine built with Maths
And don’t forget:
Maths News from around the World
7. Funky, Fab and Fantastic. Yeah! That’s Middle School Maths
September 7, 2016
The Maths Mystery Box is a great treasure chest to take into maths classes. It can be used an an extension exercise or to engage some disengaged students.
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The IDEA is to use concrete objects and write a maths problem to go with the object. (See examples below) The appeal of the MATHS MYSTERY BOX is that it involves CONCRETE THINKING, sort of. All text books involve ABSTRACT thinking, which some students do not like.
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A student picks a maths problem from the box. A problem can be simple or complex. But it is not just a maths problem. The student gets to hold an object in their hand. They have to devise their own method of approach. And they must be resourceful. ie. use equipment at hand eg. their phone as a stop watch. Students like this activity. Even maths teachers like this activity as Mathspig found out at her workshop in Hamburg.
This is what the graph should look like.
Bob the Beetle moves very fast and students have to use available tools eg. phones to calculate his speed.
You’ll find the answer here.
Safety Lecture: Do not flick at anyone. But it is fun.
