Rachel's story of Thursday 09/16/2010 math club
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Maria Droujkova
Sep 23, 2010, 8:50:03 AM9/23/10
to natur...@googlegroups.com
The question of the week is here: http://ask.naturalmath.com/questions/71/freedom-and-structure-flow-channel
PLEASE ADD YOUR ANSWERS! They will go into club books.
The picture slide show to go with this story is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26208371@N06/tags/naturalmathclub09162010/show/
We are putting together math club books as we go along. I will be building a public place for viewing all stages of book making. Meanwhile, the drafts look like scrap books on paper, and if you are not physically at our club, you can read the stories and see photos separately.
THANK YOU FOR STORIES AND PICTURES!
Rachel’s Story 09/16/2010
I am sure Maria had planned something math-related for Friday's math club--what with it being the first meeting of the fall. But the beauty of natural math is it happens all by itself--we just have to invite it in.
We were being dazzled by Colson's show-and-tell* when a person was seen approaching Maria's house in the process of selling home security systems door-to-door. All math club members were already assembled, so someone offered to send this salesperson on their way. But oh, no. Maria flings open the door and invites the unsuspecting woman into the house, whereupon Maria beams at her and invites her to share her math with us. The woman needs a little prompting, having been prepared to tell us about her home security system, but ill-prepared to show us the math. Maria gives her some gentle encouragement, and shortly hits pay dirt: security codes. Four digit security codes, no less. Maria sets the kids on this little nugget while she gives the woman a moment of her time. It turns out the kids need to know more about what digits are, and off we go!
*Colson's very cool show-and-tell was a little hand game that requires you to employ centripetal force to accomplish the goal of sinking two balls into opposite ends of the toy.
What are digits? The kids quickly discover that digits are not numbers, and numbers are made of digits. They come up with all 10 digits by naming them in no particular order, and agree that our counting system uses 10 digits and that there are 10 single digit numbers. How many two-digit numbers are there? Guesses range from 14 to 89. The moms remain very quiet while this is hashed out. Maria has the kids discover for themselves how many two digit numbers there are. She whips out come graph paper, cuts it into strips two cells wide, and has volunteers write down the two-digit numbers in small chunks. 10-20. 20-30. 30-40, all the way to 99. Then the chunks are taped together with the duplicated numbers overlapping (eliminating the duplication.) So this is all the two-digit numbers, but how many are there? The kids are not convinced that each chunk is ten until they have counted for themselves multiple times. Then they feel good about counting by tens. A sum is reached. That number is 90. The moms sigh and lean back in their chairs. There are 10 single digit numbers and 90 double digit numbers! That is all possible when you start from zero, and answer the door when math comes knocking. Snack time!
Apple cutting yields more wonders of nature and math. The veteran math club members know that Maria gets tricky when cutting apples with her butcher's knife. Sometimes the knife makes a horizontal cut across a group of fruit, sometimes it makes a vertical cut across one piece of fruit. Maria has the kids make predictions that include: what is the MOST pieces I could create with one cut, and how? The LEAST number of pieces I could create, and how? Predictions are tested, but not all bear fruit. Ahem. Colson comes up with a rule--when Maria cuts just one piece, the resulting sum is always the next number up. I don't know what is more impressive: that Colson found a rule, or that he even knew to look for one. One slice of an apple reveals a bruised interior, and Maria consigns this apple to the compost collection which can be seen outside the picture window. When Maria plops the apple onto the heap, two Blue Morpho butterflies take flight and depart in opposite directions, much to Ava's delight.
And here we go! Maria recreates their flight using two raisins. The butterfly raisins start off next to each other, two points on the same line on Maria's kitchen table. Then they fly away, and Maria makes the raisins swirl through the air, and asks the kids when the butterflies will again be two points on the same line? The kids watch the flying raisins closely, obviously doubting that this unlikely event will ever occur again. Then, Ava sees it, "THERE!!!" she shrieks, and Maria freezes the raisins in mid-flight. "I see a line between them RIGHT THERE!" and sure enough, there is an imaginary line between Maria's two hands. Then the flight resumes, and more lines are seen. Soon, the point is made: two butterfly raisins flying around are ALWAYS on the same line. Well, that's cool!
After refueling the brains, Maria gives instructions on how to build two- and three-dimensional shapes with bendy straws. We get to spread out on a beautiful satiny quilt on her living room floor and there is seemingly no limit to the number of straws available for this project. One end of a straw can be compressed and shoved into the end of another straw and the flexible joint allows for any number of shapes, both free-form and neatly geometric. Tape is available for those venturing into the third dimension. Maria took a picture of our creations and made us all feel like we had made something worthwhile. While we worked with the straws, Maria and I read aloud David A. Adler's book 3D, 2D, 1D. The comic relief in this book is provided by a goat, so it automatically got Ava's vote.
We hardly had time left to discover the other two show-and-tells. Ava's fossilized horse tooth led to wonderings about proportion...if the tooth is this big, then the jaw must be this big, then the head must be this big, and before you know it you know the size of the entire beast, all from one tooth. But if this tooth is four times the size of your tooth, then how big would your head be if this was your tooth? (Oh, GIANT.) Crichton's mechanical insects were very cool, and he demonstrated how they work.
We had a great day of math. Thank you, Maria! And thanks for the trampoline time. The kids loved that, too.
PLEASE ADD YOUR ANSWERS! They will go into club books.
The picture slide show to go with this story is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26208371@N06/tags/naturalmathclub09162010/show/
We are putting together math club books as we go along. I will be building a public place for viewing all stages of book making. Meanwhile, the drafts look like scrap books on paper, and if you are not physically at our club, you can read the stories and see photos separately.
THANK YOU FOR STORIES AND PICTURES!
Rachel’s Story 09/16/2010
I am sure Maria had planned something math-related for Friday's math club--what with it being the first meeting of the fall. But the beauty of natural math is it happens all by itself--we just have to invite it in.
We were being dazzled by Colson's show-and-tell* when a person was seen approaching Maria's house in the process of selling home security systems door-to-door. All math club members were already assembled, so someone offered to send this salesperson on their way. But oh, no. Maria flings open the door and invites the unsuspecting woman into the house, whereupon Maria beams at her and invites her to share her math with us. The woman needs a little prompting, having been prepared to tell us about her home security system, but ill-prepared to show us the math. Maria gives her some gentle encouragement, and shortly hits pay dirt: security codes. Four digit security codes, no less. Maria sets the kids on this little nugget while she gives the woman a moment of her time. It turns out the kids need to know more about what digits are, and off we go!
*Colson's very cool show-and-tell was a little hand game that requires you to employ centripetal force to accomplish the goal of sinking two balls into opposite ends of the toy.
What are digits? The kids quickly discover that digits are not numbers, and numbers are made of digits. They come up with all 10 digits by naming them in no particular order, and agree that our counting system uses 10 digits and that there are 10 single digit numbers. How many two-digit numbers are there? Guesses range from 14 to 89. The moms remain very quiet while this is hashed out. Maria has the kids discover for themselves how many two digit numbers there are. She whips out come graph paper, cuts it into strips two cells wide, and has volunteers write down the two-digit numbers in small chunks. 10-20. 20-30. 30-40, all the way to 99. Then the chunks are taped together with the duplicated numbers overlapping (eliminating the duplication.) So this is all the two-digit numbers, but how many are there? The kids are not convinced that each chunk is ten until they have counted for themselves multiple times. Then they feel good about counting by tens. A sum is reached. That number is 90. The moms sigh and lean back in their chairs. There are 10 single digit numbers and 90 double digit numbers! That is all possible when you start from zero, and answer the door when math comes knocking. Snack time!
Apple cutting yields more wonders of nature and math. The veteran math club members know that Maria gets tricky when cutting apples with her butcher's knife. Sometimes the knife makes a horizontal cut across a group of fruit, sometimes it makes a vertical cut across one piece of fruit. Maria has the kids make predictions that include: what is the MOST pieces I could create with one cut, and how? The LEAST number of pieces I could create, and how? Predictions are tested, but not all bear fruit. Ahem. Colson comes up with a rule--when Maria cuts just one piece, the resulting sum is always the next number up. I don't know what is more impressive: that Colson found a rule, or that he even knew to look for one. One slice of an apple reveals a bruised interior, and Maria consigns this apple to the compost collection which can be seen outside the picture window. When Maria plops the apple onto the heap, two Blue Morpho butterflies take flight and depart in opposite directions, much to Ava's delight.
And here we go! Maria recreates their flight using two raisins. The butterfly raisins start off next to each other, two points on the same line on Maria's kitchen table. Then they fly away, and Maria makes the raisins swirl through the air, and asks the kids when the butterflies will again be two points on the same line? The kids watch the flying raisins closely, obviously doubting that this unlikely event will ever occur again. Then, Ava sees it, "THERE!!!" she shrieks, and Maria freezes the raisins in mid-flight. "I see a line between them RIGHT THERE!" and sure enough, there is an imaginary line between Maria's two hands. Then the flight resumes, and more lines are seen. Soon, the point is made: two butterfly raisins flying around are ALWAYS on the same line. Well, that's cool!
After refueling the brains, Maria gives instructions on how to build two- and three-dimensional shapes with bendy straws. We get to spread out on a beautiful satiny quilt on her living room floor and there is seemingly no limit to the number of straws available for this project. One end of a straw can be compressed and shoved into the end of another straw and the flexible joint allows for any number of shapes, both free-form and neatly geometric. Tape is available for those venturing into the third dimension. Maria took a picture of our creations and made us all feel like we had made something worthwhile. While we worked with the straws, Maria and I read aloud David A. Adler's book 3D, 2D, 1D. The comic relief in this book is provided by a goat, so it automatically got Ava's vote.
We hardly had time left to discover the other two show-and-tells. Ava's fossilized horse tooth led to wonderings about proportion...if the tooth is this big, then the jaw must be this big, then the head must be this big, and before you know it you know the size of the entire beast, all from one tooth. But if this tooth is four times the size of your tooth, then how big would your head be if this was your tooth? (Oh, GIANT.) Crichton's mechanical insects were very cool, and he demonstrated how they work.
We had a great day of math. Thank you, Maria! And thanks for the trampoline time. The kids loved that, too.
Laura Combs
Sep 23, 2010, 9:13:49 AM9/23/10
to natur...@googlegroups.com
Rachel…that is an AWESOME right up of an AWESOME day. Thank you Maria and Rachel!
Laura
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Maria Meadows
Sep 23, 2010, 10:25:52 AM9/23/10
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ditto!! Crichton is very excited about today's meeting. He was browsing the pictures and recalling all the things we did then and I could see his face brightened up even more! :)
Great story Rachel, I loved it.
See y'all later.
Maria M.
From: laura...@bellsouth.net
To: natur...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [NaturalMath] Rachel's story of Thursday 09/16/2010 math club
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:13:49 -0400
Great story Rachel, I loved it.
See y'all later.
Maria M.
From: laura...@bellsouth.net
To: natur...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [NaturalMath] Rachel's story of Thursday 09/16/2010 math club
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:13:49 -0400
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