Math Club story from November 4th Fwd: Math writeup - 7 year olds
Maria Droujkova
Thank you very much for the story!
We had very good discussions during the club. It is somewhat hard to catch who initiates what. I wonder what tools we can use to catch/notice this, short of recording 100% of sounds. Right now, I am very curious how we even started that dimension conversation, and I can't remember!
Interestingly, dimensions came up this Tuesday as well. You can look at the set of objects for "Odd one out" as a space with multiple dimensions. For example, monster mouths form one dimension, eyes another, feet another. This view helps people see HOW to make "odd one out" sets. I am adding dimensions to the "Growing new eyes" topic, which I am aggregating at http://naturalmath.wikispaces.com/Growing+new+eyes
Erin on Tuesday said "Odd one out" reminded her of our grid activities, as well. Dimensions and grids - oh my!
Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
Make math your own, to make your own math.
From: Laura Combs
This Thursday session began with a discussion of three dimensions.
Maria asked – can something be two dimensions? Answers were yes and no.
· Yes on computers with a game like Scratch.
· Eyesight is 2d, so how do you view 3d?
· Pictures in a booik are 2d, unless you use a microscope.
· Flatland movies – there are more dimensions if you can find them.
Maria directed the kids to make an abstract sculpture. Ava made an animal. Based on that animal, Maria directed the kids to imagine four creatures:
1. The animal Ava made
2. An animal with a red mouth
3. An animal with a red mouth and one eye
4. An animal with a red mouth, one eye and three feet.
Maria asked which of the animals is the odd one out?
The one with three legs is the odd one out. They second guess themselves and make lots of assumptions.
Maria directs the kids to draw the four characters. She asks: Which one is different? A fourth child has joined the class and he is asked to examine the pictures of one of the artists and predict which one is different. He chose the first option because the mouth is yellow, not red like the others.
Maria asked if the child needs to know the story of how the animals evolved in order to know which is different. The kids respond yes.
After much discussion the kids learn that the first animal, or anything else for that matter, that starts an evolution is always the odd one out. Then Maria asks what happens when you start from the last animal and move to the original? It is the odd one out.
The kids move on to another artists four drawings and note differences, and then on to the third artist.
Time for Apple Math – which was different than ever before and very cool! This is the first time our group has done Apple Math with their imaginations first.
Maria directs the kids to imagine cutting the apple, lining up the pieces and cutting them, and lining them up and cutting a third time. How many pieces? Anna quickly says 8. Maria repeats the question, and the other kids have predictions from two to 6, with Anna standing by 8.
Maria actually makes the cuts and then asks if imagining is easier or harder? Kids answer easier and harder.
Maria takes out a new apple. She tells them to imagine that she cuts it, then cuts only an edge of an apple, then cuts the edge again and again. How many pieces? The kids say 5 and 6. They actually do it and learn that the answer is 4.
Off to the Tom O’Brien e-book, which was preceded by lots of shadow puppets. They like the O’Brien book and choosing which of four pictures is odd one out. Maria ends the lesson, but one kid continues with the O’Brien book.
It was an awesome lesson!
Laura Combs
www.movingstronglyforward.typepad.com
The older I get, the better I feel!