Can you explain why the multiplication method in the following video works? How about your upper-elementary or middle school students — can they explain it to you?
Pause the video at 4:30, before he gives the interpretation himself. After you have decided how you would explain it, hit “play” and listen to his explanation.
A fun exploration for upper elementary or middle school students, from Numberphile:
Education Unboxed has posted some playful addition games for young learners. And there’s much more on their website. Be sure to click around and explore!
Six is Having a Party! – Math Facts with Cuisenaire Rods
Most people think that mathematics means working with numbers and that being “good at math” means being able to do (only slower) what any $10 calculator can do. But then, most people think all sorts of silly things, right? That’s what makes “man on the street” interviews so funny.
Numbers are definitely part of math — but only part, and not even the biggest part. And being “good at math” means much more than being able to work with numbers. It means making connections, thinking creatively, seeing familiar things in new ways, asking “Why?” and “What if?” and “Are you sure?”
It means trying something and being willing to fail, then going back and trying something else. Even if your first try succeeded — or maybe, especially if your first try succeeded. Just knowing one way to do something is not, for a mathematician, the same as understanding that something. But the more different ways you know to figure it out, the closer you are to understanding it.
Mathematics is not just memorizing and following rules. If we want to teach real mathematics, we teachers need to learn to think like mathematicians. We need to see math as a mental game, playing with ideas. James Tanton explains:
Continue reading Thinking (and Teaching) like a Mathematician
Singing Banana (James Grime) recorded this video at the Mathematical Association annual conference dinner, 2011. I’ve shared it before, but that was over a holiday weekend, so many of you may have missed it. It relates, in a way, to our PUFM lesson this week.
Enjoy!
Vi Hart repents with an update to her last video: “Take that, mathematics!”
Albert Einstein’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but today we have a belated celebration. MinutePhysics has finally finished its series on Einstein’s “wonder year” discoveries of 1905. In the last video, we began learning about the Special Theory of Relativity. This time, we find out how that theory leads to the most famous equation in the world…
https://youtu.be/TINfzxSnnIE&rel=0
https://youtu.be/wsOXvQn3JuE&rel=0
In 1905, when he was 26 years old, Albert Einstein rocked the scientific world with a series of papers that changed our understanding of the nature of the universe. At MinutePhysics, the celebration continues:
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 