Math Project: Furnish A Hotel Starting with an IKEA catalog, a hotel furnishing math project was born. Use this project as a tool to differentiate your math instruction and impart some practical knowledge on your students.
Mathematical Curiosities Sometimes you encounter that math student who is simply interested in numbers. Here are some famous (and not so famous) sets of numbers that have curious properties.
Solving An Authentic Classroom Problem: The Desk Arrangement How often do you give your gifted students the opportunity to solve authentic, relevant problems? What is more authentic to a student than solving classroom problems? And what excites students more than having ownership over the classroom seating? Here's an authentic problem solving idea that ties in public speaking skills, group work, and classroom ownership.
Fixing my “Think Like A Statistician” Frame I used a Depth and Complexity Frame like this with my math students. Let’s look at how we could improve this. Some problems: It asks four unrelated questions. I want to build a sequence of questions that climbs Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most of the questions are naturally answered with “yes” or “no” or a list. Questions […]
A Math Question That Moves Around on Bloom’s I was aiming for engagement rather than higher-level thinking.
To Show Or Not To Show Work In Math We must be careful not to admonish our intuitive learners for being intuitive. As teachers of the gifted, we must set up learning environments that are best for our students. And if they're doing it all in their heads (and getting it right!), then the environment needs to change.
Math Project: Box Office Totals As a teenager, I loved monitoring the weekend's box office results. This kind of data is exciting, oozing with built in conflict. It sets up questions that require math to answer.
Math Game: Heaps Heaps is a lovely math-y strategy game that requires no more than paper and pencil to play.
Explore Geometry: Area and Perimeter The problem is that we dive in with formulae before students have their bearings. Let your students get their hands dirty with geometry. They've got to play with the shapes and explore. Beginning adders and subtractors work with manipulatives before they delve into abstract arithmetic. Older students are still beginning geometers. Give them a chance to touch the math and have some fun.
