MATH FAIR!

Last Thursday, our class had a math fair. Each pair of students selected a question from this site and presented it to the class in a "science fair" type set up, all around the classroom. 

I selected a problem called Jedi Knights. As much as I would like to have gone with the Star Wars theme of this question, I really don't think I could have pulled it off. Instead I gave the question an alien theme.


Three Rollies (little round aliens) and three Pointys (little triangular aliens) were travelling together. They needed to cross a river. They found a little boat that only two aliens could travel in at once. Pointys get a bit full of themselves when they outnumber other creatures, and then poke the aliens in the minority. How can they get to the other side of the river without any poking? 

The math in this question is about more/less concepts as well as forseeing what will happen in different steps of solving this problem (and remembering what worked and didn't worked).


The extention on this problem was about the midnight monster. This monster attacks everything he sees at midnight. A family of four needs to get through a tunnel to safety. It is 11:43pm. Only two people can fit through this tunnel at a time. They only have one flashlight that needs to be used at all times in the tunnel. Dad can travel the tunnel in one minute, Mom in two, Little Jim-Bob in five and dear old Granny in ten. If two family members are travelling together, they must travel at the same pace. How can they escape the monster?

The math in the extention is similar to the original problem, but adds the element of addition. 


My problems were received well by my classmates. I worked alone, so was only by my question station for half of the fair. Most people tried the first part of the question and had quick success. I encouraged everyone to try the harder question, and the ones that did needed a few hints, but eventually got the question. It stretched my own thinking when I first read the questions.


If I had to redo my presentation, I would have made a poster board with the original question, but only have manipulatives for the extention. I think the first part, while good for primary students, was far too easy for our class. I would have liked to challenge them more. I had no problem not giving hints to my classmates. Maybe this is because I don't know them well, but I really wanted them to figure it out themselves.

I enjoyed visiting everyone's problem stations and working out the problems there. I felt unchallenged by many of the problems, but I really enjoyed the ones that took a bit of an effort to solve.

My favourite part of the activity was getting to interact with almost the entire class in a one-to-one setting. I was warmly welcomed to each station, or even called over to join in a two-player game. In a classroom that had many cliques or a few new students, a math fair would be an excellent opportunity for them to get to know everyone. 

I didn't find this exercise particularly challenging. The harderst part was figuring out the extentions to my own question. It took me a long while and I wasn't sure I was going to get to an answer! But I got the answer eventually and it all made sense then.

I would most certianly do this with a k-6 class! Even with a junior high class. I bet I could put a music theory spin on them and use it in music class! (It would work because musical notation and theory is all math!)

more thoughts about math.

I always liked math, especially math in physics class, because there was one answer, and it made sense. If a car travels at a certain speed, consuming gas at a constant rate, and the gas tank has a set capacity, finding the distance the car travels before it runs out of gas is a logical process, aided by those handy formulas. I loved getting the correct answer. It was even better when I was the first to get that answer!

I liked math less when it didn’t make sense anymore. Calculus makes little sense to me. I had to memorize and try to apply what I had memorized to get through. I was much less efficient in this area. I felt I could relate to the students in my previous math classes who had struggled with grasping the concepts that had been presented.

What is math? I originally would have said the study of numbers. Now? I’m not sure how to define math now. I know it is a complex web of concepts and patterns ready to be discovered. Now I know that the “listen, copy, memorize, drill” method is not effective, just as the same practice in almost any area is not particularly helpful.

While reading through the sample problems, I was frustrated I didn’t have anyone around to bounce ideas with. And that there were no solutions, examples or even hints to help.

I really liked reading about the benefits of relational understanding. Making connections IS intrinsically rewarding! It does help memory. It makes everything better!

I’m intrigued with the “new” way of teaching math and hope to gain a better understanding of its concepts and execution in the remaining part of the semester.