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Math Lesson from the Olympic Games

Posted on by yana_import

Among the myriad math lessons offered to us by the Olympic Games, here’s one involving just the rings. I recently challenged myself to model the rings using Geometiles, and came up with what you see against the background of the UCSD Track and Field Stadium.  When Susan Lopez of LopezLandLearners saw this picture, she realized that it would make a great estimation problem: How many triangles and squares does it take to make one of these rings, just by looking at it? What a great way to start children thinking about estimates….
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Math and Economics at the Farmers Market

Posted on by yana_import

There’s still nothing like experiencing math in the context of of simple cash purchases. I say “still” because of the plethora of available extra-curricular math resources like competitions, online programs, manipulatives, etc. In our age dominated by credit card and online purchases, many kids don’t have the opportunity to develop the skills of making simple arithmetic computations in real time while talking to people….
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An exercise in modeling a real life tile pattern

Posted on by yana_import

What a great exercise it would be for a child to figure out how to “model” this wall with only equilateral triangles and squares. This is exactly the kind of thinking that the writers of the Common Core Math standards illustrate in the draft of their Geometry Progression for Grades K-6, pp. 7, 11-12. Geometiles™ were used for the modeling task, as shown above….
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