The week of inspirational math was 4 days of hands on math activities that made us collaborate and push ourselves. Along with each activity we also watched a video that would inspire us to work hard and believe in ourselves. The summaries of these videos can be found at the bottom of this page.
DAY 1
Our first activity was called "Building Shapes". In this activity we worked in groups of 3-4 in order to create different shapes with a loop of rope. Some of the shapes were a cube, a tetrahedron, a star and a square pyramid. The only rules were that every group member had to have at least one hand on the shape and we could not untie the loop of rope.
DAY 2
The next day the activity was called "Number Penny Visuals". In this activity we worked together in groups of 3-4 and were given 100 pennies. We had to equally divide these pennies into different patterns. The patterns were five piles of pennies, three piles, 6 piles, 7 piles and 9 piles. Each pattern had to have an equal amount of pennies in each stack, but these piles didn't have to be equal to the other patterns. We had the 100 pennies to divide between each pattern.
DAY 3
Our next activity was "One-cut Geometry". We worked individually for this activity, but were allowed to ask for help from our peers. The point of this activity was to fold a paper in a way so that with only one straight cut we could have a triangle. The rules to this were that we couldn't use the straight edge of the paper as one of our triangle sides and that we only had one straight cut.
DAY 4
On the last day, we did an activity called "Square Mania". In this activity we were given a worksheet with two patterns. We had to determine how many squares were in these patterns and how many lines were in them. After we did this we were asked to make a pattern using the least amount of lines as possible and have 100 squares within the pattern.
SQUARE MANIA
The activity that was the most interesting for me was "Square Mania". This is because it involved trying and attempting the problem multiple times. This makes math more fun because as you try over and over again you can develop new techniques that are more efficient or accurate. Also failing multiple times before you get the right solution helps you feel more accomplished and challenged and math is never fun if you aren't challenged. I started this worksheet by answering the first 2 questions then trying to look for a pattern within them. After a while I realized that I couldn't find a pattern, so I started to make randomly sized rectangles in order to find the solution for question 3. In the second picture you can see some of my attempts, some of which were frustratingly close to 100 squares and others which were far off. Finally in the last picture you can see a long rectangle that it 34x2. This one has 100 squares in it. I found this solution by collaborating with the other students at my table. This is only one of make solutions, but this was the only one we could find in the time we had. One habit of a mathematician that I used during this activity was conjecture and test. You can see some of this in the pictures below. If I didn't use this habit then I wouldn't have been able to solve the problem because my technique for solving this problem was trying different things.
DAY 1
Our first activity was called "Building Shapes". In this activity we worked in groups of 3-4 in order to create different shapes with a loop of rope. Some of the shapes were a cube, a tetrahedron, a star and a square pyramid. The only rules were that every group member had to have at least one hand on the shape and we could not untie the loop of rope.
DAY 2
The next day the activity was called "Number Penny Visuals". In this activity we worked together in groups of 3-4 and were given 100 pennies. We had to equally divide these pennies into different patterns. The patterns were five piles of pennies, three piles, 6 piles, 7 piles and 9 piles. Each pattern had to have an equal amount of pennies in each stack, but these piles didn't have to be equal to the other patterns. We had the 100 pennies to divide between each pattern.
DAY 3
Our next activity was "One-cut Geometry". We worked individually for this activity, but were allowed to ask for help from our peers. The point of this activity was to fold a paper in a way so that with only one straight cut we could have a triangle. The rules to this were that we couldn't use the straight edge of the paper as one of our triangle sides and that we only had one straight cut.
DAY 4
On the last day, we did an activity called "Square Mania". In this activity we were given a worksheet with two patterns. We had to determine how many squares were in these patterns and how many lines were in them. After we did this we were asked to make a pattern using the least amount of lines as possible and have 100 squares within the pattern.
SQUARE MANIA
The activity that was the most interesting for me was "Square Mania". This is because it involved trying and attempting the problem multiple times. This makes math more fun because as you try over and over again you can develop new techniques that are more efficient or accurate. Also failing multiple times before you get the right solution helps you feel more accomplished and challenged and math is never fun if you aren't challenged. I started this worksheet by answering the first 2 questions then trying to look for a pattern within them. After a while I realized that I couldn't find a pattern, so I started to make randomly sized rectangles in order to find the solution for question 3. In the second picture you can see some of my attempts, some of which were frustratingly close to 100 squares and others which were far off. Finally in the last picture you can see a long rectangle that it 34x2. This one has 100 squares in it. I found this solution by collaborating with the other students at my table. This is only one of make solutions, but this was the only one we could find in the time we had. One habit of a mathematician that I used during this activity was conjecture and test. You can see some of this in the pictures below. If I didn't use this habit then I wouldn't have been able to solve the problem because my technique for solving this problem was trying different things.
DAY 1 VIDEO
The first video we watched was about strategies for learning math and habits of a mathematician. It showed us how doing things like collaborating with each other, starting small and being systematic can help us be more efficient in math. This is really important to me because I use these habits on a daily basis in math class and they really help you be more efficient while doing math.
DAY 2 VIDEO
This video was about how being fast in math isn't always a good thing. It showed us how taking your time on a math problem is more helpful than trying to speed through it. Some important mathematicians took years solving one math problem. To me this is an important thing to know because a lot of the time you will see people rush through their math problems to show that they are good at math. And while they might be, taking time on your math problems can help you better understand and find new ways to solve the problem.
DAY 3 VIDEO
The next video was about believing in yourself and having a growth mindset. This video told us about how having a growth mindset can actually make you excel in math class vs. having a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is when you know that you can grow and that there is no such things as a "math person." Someone with a fixed mindset would think that they can't improve or grow because they are not a "math person" This is important to me because before I came to High Tech and even in the beginning of my career here, I had a fixed mindset. But, throughout the years I have evolved into a growth mindset and now I constantly push myself to improve.
DAY 4 VIDEO
The last video was about how you can grow your brain. This video explained how our brains works and how making mistakes can help our brains grow. It shows that making mistakes is essential while doing math. This is an important message to me because I used to be too scared to participate in math class because I thought I would get something wrong. But, now I know that even if I do get something wrong, that's not a bad thing.
OVERALL REFLECTION
When I look back on this week I can see how it helped me and how it showed me where I should improve. All of these problem were pretty challenging and I approached them in different ways because of my table group. I collaborated a lot and that helped me so much because I got new perspectives from other people and they showed me new ways to look at things. Now I know that if I am having difficulties with a problem, instead of getting frustrated or giving up, I should step back and try to approach the problem in a new way. Throughout all these math problems I consistently used the following habits of a mathematician: collaborate and listen, be persistent, patient and confident, and look for patterns. Overall I believe that this week really helped start off this year by practicing the habits of a mathematician, collaborating and briefly reviewing new and old concepts.
The first video we watched was about strategies for learning math and habits of a mathematician. It showed us how doing things like collaborating with each other, starting small and being systematic can help us be more efficient in math. This is really important to me because I use these habits on a daily basis in math class and they really help you be more efficient while doing math.
DAY 2 VIDEO
This video was about how being fast in math isn't always a good thing. It showed us how taking your time on a math problem is more helpful than trying to speed through it. Some important mathematicians took years solving one math problem. To me this is an important thing to know because a lot of the time you will see people rush through their math problems to show that they are good at math. And while they might be, taking time on your math problems can help you better understand and find new ways to solve the problem.
DAY 3 VIDEO
The next video was about believing in yourself and having a growth mindset. This video told us about how having a growth mindset can actually make you excel in math class vs. having a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is when you know that you can grow and that there is no such things as a "math person." Someone with a fixed mindset would think that they can't improve or grow because they are not a "math person" This is important to me because before I came to High Tech and even in the beginning of my career here, I had a fixed mindset. But, throughout the years I have evolved into a growth mindset and now I constantly push myself to improve.
DAY 4 VIDEO
The last video was about how you can grow your brain. This video explained how our brains works and how making mistakes can help our brains grow. It shows that making mistakes is essential while doing math. This is an important message to me because I used to be too scared to participate in math class because I thought I would get something wrong. But, now I know that even if I do get something wrong, that's not a bad thing.
OVERALL REFLECTION
When I look back on this week I can see how it helped me and how it showed me where I should improve. All of these problem were pretty challenging and I approached them in different ways because of my table group. I collaborated a lot and that helped me so much because I got new perspectives from other people and they showed me new ways to look at things. Now I know that if I am having difficulties with a problem, instead of getting frustrated or giving up, I should step back and try to approach the problem in a new way. Throughout all these math problems I consistently used the following habits of a mathematician: collaborate and listen, be persistent, patient and confident, and look for patterns. Overall I believe that this week really helped start off this year by practicing the habits of a mathematician, collaborating and briefly reviewing new and old concepts.