Week of inspirational math was about inspiring us as students to think in a different way of math. As us students we maneuvered with their thinking through 4 different tasks and videos that improve our perspectives and thoughts about math itself. Making the students be engaged and find the interesting side of math and get used to the habits of a mathematician.
We got to participate and collaborate in four different activities in class. One of these activities was 'building shapes' we were separated into groups of 3 or 3+. Each group was given a rope loop and each group member had to have one hand in the rope and attempt to form 2 and 3 dimensional shapes, such as a 5 pointed star, cube, square, square pyramid, tetrahedron, and octohedron . The group needed everyone to participate to build the shapes and provide a convincing argument of how they got to such solution. My group was able to build a cube, square pyramid, tetrahedron, and a 5 pointed star.
The second activity we did was called Number Visual Pennies and this activity was mainly about finding visual patterns. In this activity we were also divided into groups like the first activity and each group was given a bag with 100 pennies. There was five different patterns and we had to divide all the pennies into the groups who were formed by patterns my group found a solution and divided all the pennies into different amounts but each pattern had an equal amount pennies each stack.
The third activity was about a scalene triangle ( a triangle with all unequal sides). We had to draw a scalene triangle in patty paper and cut the triangle with one cut.
In the final activity we had a pattern in a diagram that was a rectangle divided into smaller squares. We had to identify how many squares were in the rectangle and how many lines it used to make the smaller squares. Then we had to find a diagram that would have exactly 100 squares and use the least amount of lines.
Then we watched 4 different videos. The first one was about the ways to solve a problem. There was Draw It Out, Teamwork, Experiment, Look for Different Sources, and Start With a Smaller Case. I've had the opportunity to put these in practice before, but overall Teamwork is one of the most important because when people work together you can find new ideas and work through the problem easily and you all learn.
The next video was about how success doesn't come by how fast you go. This was very interesting to me because it focused on how learning and understanding the process helps you more in the long run. I think it's a useful thing to remember, especially because I've sometimes tries to do everything fast and I forget to double check or revise my work which makes my assignment look bad and messy.
The third video was about the process of our brains and what we call 'math people'. It explained that math people don't exist and that anyone can be good at math naturally. Math People is something that I've heard so much. I'm glad to know that you can be good at math or anything you set your mind to. Yet, when somebody sees that somebody is growing and understanding they think that they're math people, but it's because they've made mistakes and learned from them.
In the fourth video they showed how believing in yourself can make a solution. Having confidence or believing in yourself is very important either right or wrong your answer may be it's important that you believe in you and your hard work. Believing in yourself can also have a massive payoff if it becomes a habit whenever you're faced with something difficult.
The final video was about making mistakes. How brain growth comes from making mistakes and strengthens the pathways in your brain. Mistakes make everything make sense. When we make mistakes they actually help us grow in our way of thinking, we learn from them and take away valuable information to come closer to the solution.
One of my favorite activities was the one with the scalene triangle. We had to draw a triangle with unequal sides in patty paper and fold it in a way that we could cut it with one single cut. I really enjoyed this activity because its complexity and how interesting it was. It was challenging t come up with an idea of how to draw a triangle in a certain way that I could cut it in one cut. I tried something in the beginning but it didn't work out because the measurements were off but then I tried to do it a again and tried to change the measurements by a little bit instead of doing big changes. For example if one of the sides were 1.5 in the other one would be 1.4 in and the third would be 1.6 in. I tried this instead of repeating the same mistake that I did first which I did 1.5 x 1.7x 1.9 and it didn't work out. So, I thought that I could make the differences between the measurements smaller. This made me think and use the Habits of A Mathematician. I was able to use the habit of being systematic. I used this because being systematic is making small changes to find different patterns and find differences. Also being confident, patient, and persistence. Mathematicians have faith in their abilities, they are willing to take risks, they're will explore even when they are unsure about where to start. I didn't give up easily even if I attempted so many things and I couldn't find a solution at that time. Even if it was hard to find a way to start I was very interested in finding a solution and to work on it.
Overall, the week of inspirational math was very interesting. I was drawn to the problems and I actually did want to find solutions. It was a good week to start us to use the Habits of A Mathematician. These habits are very important to have especially in math because they help us work better and find answers easily. I definitely tried to find as much solutions as I could and these activities were definitely worth working for. I learned very much from learning how to use the habits and how to work together with other people. I got to share my solutions and way of work with my classmates and this week was really helpful to all of us to refresh us with what we had forgotten over the break and it was a great week to start the year.
Below are some pictures of what we did over this week.
We got to participate and collaborate in four different activities in class. One of these activities was 'building shapes' we were separated into groups of 3 or 3+. Each group was given a rope loop and each group member had to have one hand in the rope and attempt to form 2 and 3 dimensional shapes, such as a 5 pointed star, cube, square, square pyramid, tetrahedron, and octohedron . The group needed everyone to participate to build the shapes and provide a convincing argument of how they got to such solution. My group was able to build a cube, square pyramid, tetrahedron, and a 5 pointed star.
The second activity we did was called Number Visual Pennies and this activity was mainly about finding visual patterns. In this activity we were also divided into groups like the first activity and each group was given a bag with 100 pennies. There was five different patterns and we had to divide all the pennies into the groups who were formed by patterns my group found a solution and divided all the pennies into different amounts but each pattern had an equal amount pennies each stack.
The third activity was about a scalene triangle ( a triangle with all unequal sides). We had to draw a scalene triangle in patty paper and cut the triangle with one cut.
In the final activity we had a pattern in a diagram that was a rectangle divided into smaller squares. We had to identify how many squares were in the rectangle and how many lines it used to make the smaller squares. Then we had to find a diagram that would have exactly 100 squares and use the least amount of lines.
Then we watched 4 different videos. The first one was about the ways to solve a problem. There was Draw It Out, Teamwork, Experiment, Look for Different Sources, and Start With a Smaller Case. I've had the opportunity to put these in practice before, but overall Teamwork is one of the most important because when people work together you can find new ideas and work through the problem easily and you all learn.
The next video was about how success doesn't come by how fast you go. This was very interesting to me because it focused on how learning and understanding the process helps you more in the long run. I think it's a useful thing to remember, especially because I've sometimes tries to do everything fast and I forget to double check or revise my work which makes my assignment look bad and messy.
The third video was about the process of our brains and what we call 'math people'. It explained that math people don't exist and that anyone can be good at math naturally. Math People is something that I've heard so much. I'm glad to know that you can be good at math or anything you set your mind to. Yet, when somebody sees that somebody is growing and understanding they think that they're math people, but it's because they've made mistakes and learned from them.
In the fourth video they showed how believing in yourself can make a solution. Having confidence or believing in yourself is very important either right or wrong your answer may be it's important that you believe in you and your hard work. Believing in yourself can also have a massive payoff if it becomes a habit whenever you're faced with something difficult.
The final video was about making mistakes. How brain growth comes from making mistakes and strengthens the pathways in your brain. Mistakes make everything make sense. When we make mistakes they actually help us grow in our way of thinking, we learn from them and take away valuable information to come closer to the solution.
One of my favorite activities was the one with the scalene triangle. We had to draw a triangle with unequal sides in patty paper and fold it in a way that we could cut it with one single cut. I really enjoyed this activity because its complexity and how interesting it was. It was challenging t come up with an idea of how to draw a triangle in a certain way that I could cut it in one cut. I tried something in the beginning but it didn't work out because the measurements were off but then I tried to do it a again and tried to change the measurements by a little bit instead of doing big changes. For example if one of the sides were 1.5 in the other one would be 1.4 in and the third would be 1.6 in. I tried this instead of repeating the same mistake that I did first which I did 1.5 x 1.7x 1.9 and it didn't work out. So, I thought that I could make the differences between the measurements smaller. This made me think and use the Habits of A Mathematician. I was able to use the habit of being systematic. I used this because being systematic is making small changes to find different patterns and find differences. Also being confident, patient, and persistence. Mathematicians have faith in their abilities, they are willing to take risks, they're will explore even when they are unsure about where to start. I didn't give up easily even if I attempted so many things and I couldn't find a solution at that time. Even if it was hard to find a way to start I was very interested in finding a solution and to work on it.
Overall, the week of inspirational math was very interesting. I was drawn to the problems and I actually did want to find solutions. It was a good week to start us to use the Habits of A Mathematician. These habits are very important to have especially in math because they help us work better and find answers easily. I definitely tried to find as much solutions as I could and these activities were definitely worth working for. I learned very much from learning how to use the habits and how to work together with other people. I got to share my solutions and way of work with my classmates and this week was really helpful to all of us to refresh us with what we had forgotten over the break and it was a great week to start the year.
Below are some pictures of what we did over this week.
Here are some pictures of my favorite activity below.