Posts Tagged ‘Outdoor’
October 2, 2023
This is the best Middle School Probability outdoor exercise EVER!
Equipment:
1 coin per student.
Instructions:
In the schoolyard, students move back and forward with the flip of a coin. Must be a good flip. This exercise works best with a grid drawn on the schoolyard in chalk, perhaps. (See pic below) If possible film the exercise from above.
Now here are lots of people doing this 2D random Walk on Wall St. The results are totally amazing.
…………………………………………………………
Watch for the Bell Curve. It’s AWESOME.
This video was made by The National Museum of Mathematics NY.
Check out their Squared wheeled bike here.
Posted in Middle School, probability, Random Numbers, Uncategorized, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged activity, Bell Curve, coin, distribution, flip, Fun, Graph, Math %, Middle school, MoMath, normal, Outdoor, probability, random, walk | Leave a Comment »
February 8, 2023
Summer Holidays are done. School is BACK in Australia. But how do middle school teachers get students excited about Maths? Here are some ideas.
“A growing body of research shows us that outdoor play leads to better physical and mental health, has positive effects on cognitive function and learning, and reduces the incidence of behavioural problems.” Maria Zotti, Nature Play, SA.
Peter Dunstan, Principal Kilkenny PS, SA, writes in SAPPA magazine, Primary Focus, that outdoor play fosters “wonderment, independence and freedom” as well as “social skills, imagination, creativity and problem solving”.
Inspired by SAPPA and NaturePlay, Mathspig has produced her own outdoorsy maths list:
References:
7. Robin Hood Give us your best shot.
9. You can measure the volume of your lungs by blowing one breath into a balloon and pushing it into a full bucket of water. Measure the overflow.
15: Outdoor Maths: Times Tables
21. Light intensity links. Here and here.
25. Sound Volume Measurement
36. Killer heels that really kill.
Posted in 41 maths things to do before you're 12, Junior School, Maths Piglets, Uncategorized | Tagged 12, 41, activities, amazing, challenge, exciting, Fun, funny, great, inspiring, junior school, Math %, Middle school, Outdoor, Problems | Leave a Comment »
September 16, 2022
As the weather improves – Spring in Melbourne, my city & Fall in USA & Autumn in the UK – it is an ideal time to take math outdoors. Here are some fab exercises for Middle School Math.
Lego Man soccer fields will vary in size depending on the height of each player picked by each student. This does your head in. It is really challenging maths!
McGill Uni link here.
Don’t forget to throw in Mathspig’s lame protractor jokes.
You’ll find full calculations at the Maths is Fun blog.
You’ll find more fab outdoor junior and middle school maths activities at the terrific Maths and Movement blog.
Some students will discover their co-ordinate point is not on the grid. Students should then work out that they will need a different scale for the y-axis. You can get more inspiration at the Stand Again blog.
Posted in 6 Outdoor Maths Adventures: Middle School, co - ordinates, decimals, direct proportion, geometry, graphs, Linear Equation, Middle School, Parabolas, trigonometry, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged Adventure, Co-orinate geometry, linear graph, Math %, Middle school, Outdoor, protractor, ratio, similar triangles, Soccer, tree height, trigonometry, World Cup | Leave a Comment »
July 22, 2022
Mathspig has become obsessed with the Galton Board since watching ELEVEN dropping discs into the peg board on STRANGER THINGS 4.
Now thanks to David Butler, University of Adelaide, you can turn your middle school class into Galton Balls. You can find 100 randomly generated instruction sheets for each human Galton Ball at David’s website. (Link above)
Ideally, you would have 3,000 students to do this activity. But the class exercise ends with something approximating a Normal Distribution or Bell Curve constructed from video tap casettes. And the NOrMal Distribution is spooky.
More on the Galton Board Math here.
Posted in Normal Distribution, statistics, STRANGER THINGS MATH, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged activity, balls, Bell Curve, Eleven, exercise, Fun, Galton Board, human, Maths, Middle school, Normal Distribution, Outdoor, stats, Stranger Things | Leave a Comment »
February 22, 2022
Australia is reviewing its Maths Curriculum.
Sides are taken. Arguments are rife. See the excellent article by Donna Lu, Cracking the formula: how should Australia be teaching maths under the national curriculum?, The Guardian,13 FEB, 2022)
Should teachers teach? Or students explore problems? (Called Cognitive Activation in academe!)
Why not, both? Then add outdoor maths (below) plus defronting the classroom sometimes and try some maths selfies for homework. More ideas here.
It doesn’t matter what’s written in the curriculum, the biggest problem in maths for students is
BOREDOM.
Here, to tackle boredom are:
41 Maths things to do before you’re 12
“A growing body of research shows us that outdoor play leads to better physical and mental health, has positive effects on cognitive function and learning, and reduces the incidence of behavioural problems.” Maria Zotti, Nature Play, SA.
Peter Dunstan, Principal Kilkenny PS, SA, writes in SAPPA magazine, Primary Focus, that outdoor play fosters “wonderment, independence and freedom” as well as “social skills, imagination, creativity and problem solving”.
Inspired by SAPPA and NaturePlay, Mathspig has produced her own outdoorsy maths list:
References:
7. Robin Hood Give us your best shot.
9. You can measure the volume of your lungs by blowing one breath into a balloon and pushing it into a full bucket of water. Measure the overflow.
15: Outdoor Maths: Times Tables
21. Light intensity links. Here and here.
25. Sound Volume Measurement
36. Killer heels that really kill.
Posted in 41 maths things to do before you're 12, Junior School, Maths Piglets, Middle School, Real World Math | Tagged 12, 2022, 41, activities, Australia, boredom, challenge, curriculum, Fun, inspiring, Math, Middle school, new, Outdoor, Problem | Leave a Comment »
July 28, 2021
This is the best Middle School Probability outdoor exercise EVER!
Equipment:
1 coin per student.
Instructions:
In the schoolyard, students move back and forward with the flip of a coin. Must be a good flip. This exercise works best with a grid drawn on the schoolyard in chalk, perhaps. (See pic below) If possible film the exercise from above.
Now here are lots of people doing this 2D random Walk on Wall St. The results are totally amazing.
…………………………………………………………
Watch for the Bell Curve. It’s AWESOME.
This video was made by The National Museum of Mathematics NY.
Check out their Squared wheeled bike here.
Posted in Middle School, probability, Random Numbers, Uncategorized, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged activity, Bell Curve, coin, distribution, flip, Fun, Graph, Math, Middle school, MoMath, normal, Outdoor, probability, random, walk | Leave a Comment »
September 9, 2019
As the weather improves – Spring in Melbourne, my city & Autumn in USA & UK – it is an ideal time to take math outdoors. Here are some fab exercises for Middle School Math.
Lego Man soccer fields will vary in size depending on the height of each player picked by each student. This does your head in. It is really challenging maths!
McGill Uni link here.
Don’t forget to throw in Mathspig’s lame protractor jokes.
You’ll find full calculations at the Maths is Fun blog.
You’ll find more fab outdoor junior and middle school maths activities at the terrific Maths and Movement blog.
Some students will discover their co-ordinate point is not on the grid. Students should then work out that they will need a different scale for the y-axis. You can get more inspiration at the Stand Again blog.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged autumn, back to school, circumference, Co-orinate geometry, Fun, linear graph, Math, Middle school, Outdoor, ratio, similar triangles, spring, tree height, trigonometry, World Cup | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2019
“A growing body of research shows us that outdoor play leads to better physical and mental health, has positive effects on cognitive function and learning, and reduces the incidence of behavioural problems.” Maria Zotti, Nature Play, SA.
Peter Dunstan, Principal Kilkenny PS, SA, writes in SAPPA magazine, Primary Focus, that outdoor play fosters “wonderment, independence and freedom” as well as “social skills, imagination, creativity and problem solving”.
Inspired by SAPPA and NaturePlay, Mathspig has produced her own outdoorsy maths list:
References:
7. Robin Hood Give us your best shot.
9. You can measure the volume of your lungs by blowing one breath into a balloon and pushing it into a full bucket of water. Measure the overflow.
15: Outdoor Maths: Times Tables
21. Light intensity links. Here and here.
25. Sound Volume Measurement
36. Killer heels that really kill.
Posted in 41 maths things to do before you're 12, Junior School, Maths Piglets, Uncategorized | Tagged 12, 41, activities, amazing, challenge, exciting, Fun, funny, great, inspiring, junior school, Math %, Middle school, Outdoor, Problems | Leave a Comment »
September 30, 2014
Hello Babies,
Randall Munroe is a pro web cartoonist, maths nut and maths guru who answers crazy hypothetical questions using maths. His website is xkcd.
His TED lecture is here.
……………………………………………………………………..
And his book What if? Can be found here.
Here are some of the questions Randall attacks:
Ans: It could be as early as 2065.
Ans: Not to be recommended.
Ans: Mach 1 or really, really, fast.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
Mathspig loves this crazy maths. Here are some of the hypothetical questions from mathspig:
……………………………………………………………………..
And now Mathspig has been cruising in her Hogmobile working out how far a car can travel on human fat. You will find interesting calculations here, here and here.
Ooooooh! I’ve got the munchies. I better go and make some more DIY bio-fuel.
Cheerio
Mathspig
Posted in mathspig, Middle School, Rates, Silly Maths Jokes, statspig | Tagged crazy, drink blood, facebook, How much chocolate can kill, Hunger Game maths, mass murderer, Math %, Math Joke, Outdoor, Randall Munroe, teacher, Twilight Maths, Zombie Maths | 2 Comments »
September 3, 2014
Hello Little Creatures,…………………………………………
,…………………………………………………………………………….
Here’s the BIG QUESTION:…………………………………
Is our maths teaching too safe?
Does this risk-averse teaching not only make maths boring, but encourage MATHS PHOBIA in children?
Pam Kent, President SAPPA
Pam Kent, President of the South Australian Primary Principals Association (SAPPA) writes that ‘risk-averseness looms large’ in teaching today, yet ‘current research strongly supports the notion of risk taking for effective learning’.
This research includes work by Ellen Sandseter, Professor of Early Childhood Education, Queen Maud Uni College, Norway.
Sandseter claims that children are born to take risks and this is how they learn to deal with such things as fear of heights. (See: Can playgrounds be to safe? John, Tierney, New York Times, 18 JUL 2011) If children do not tackle a fear of heights, say, they can develop a phobia.
To tackle Maths Phobia Mathspig has written a list of
to get them:…………,…………………………………………
*outdoors…………..,…………………………………………
*thinking mathematically in the real world,
and *expose them to higher level maths………………..
Take No 21. Kids get this. As you get further and further away from the candle the sphere gets bigger so the brightness decreases. They don’t have to do the maths. But tell them ‘This is university maths, but very interesting’.
As for No 37: How do you break your teeth playing pool? Well, if you leave your hand on the pool table or lean on the cushion the ball can cannon off the opposite cushion and run back up your arm and smash your teeth. (Ref. Mathspig’s brother)
Cheerio
……………………………………………………
Mathspig
Posted in Junior School, Maths NEWS, mathspig | Tagged Adventure, Classroom Ideas for Maths Teachers, fear, Fun, I hate math, inspire, junior school, Math phobia, motivate, Outdoor, Pam Kent, risk adverse, SAPPA, teaching | Leave a Comment »
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