I Love Math Day is coming up on February 12, 2015.
I Love Math is a season in the school year when students, teachers, parents, and the whole community celebrate an everlasting love for math. It is also a time when we work on some of our most profound hopes for Mustard Seed School students for their growth as mathematicians. This is a season for:
• helping students learn more of the breadth and beauty of mathematics
• playful problem solving
• expanding children's understanding of what math is
• building persistence
• developing mathematical creativity
Already, middle school students have been considering the question: "What do Mathematicians Do?" Each grade level generates its own list. At the beginning of the year, most classes create a list of 25 or 30 things. We add to the list as we go through the year, and it often grows to 40 to 60 items. Who knew?
A list like this serves at least three wonderful purposes.
• It expands student thinking about what mathematics is.
• It helps children realize that they are mathematicians. As the list grows, we ask, "Do you do these things? When you do them, you are doing the things mathematicians do. You must be a mathematician!"
• It expands student thinking about what mathematics is.
• It helps children realize that they are mathematicians. As the list grows, we ask, "Do you do these things? When you do them, you are doing the things mathematicians do. You must be a mathematician!"
• It helps students develop a broad array of problem solving strategies. When a student is stuck, or needs a new strategy, we always ask the question, "What do mathematicians do?" The list usually contains several helpful strategies for any particular problem.
Please look over the list below to see the kinds of things middle school students think mathematicians do.
Please also return to this blog frequently over the next several weeks. You will find more postings about the activities of I Love Math season. Importantly, you will find some of our favorite problems that we can all work on together. You will also get the news about a distinguished visitor or two who love math. Stay tuned.
What Do Mathematicians Do?
Please look over the list below to see the kinds of things middle school students think mathematicians do.
Please also return to this blog frequently over the next several weeks. You will find more postings about the activities of I Love Math season. Importantly, you will find some of our favorite problems that we can all work on together. You will also get the news about a distinguished visitor or two who love math. Stay tuned.
What Do Mathematicians Do?
2014-2015
The list is long, gathered from students and adults at Mustard Seed School. If sometimes a word choice sounds like it came from a child, it probably did. They own this list!
1. Solve problems
2. Create problems
3. Graph
4. Predict answers
5. Make grids
6. Use coordinates
7. Discover new things
8. Create order
9. Create disorder
10. Arrange numbers
11. Rearrange numbers
12. Support and build technology
13. Analyze stocks
14. Find formulas
15. Explain formulas
16. Use what they know about small problems to solve big problems
17. Cook
18. Ask questions
19. Experiment with numbers
20. Count
21. Estimate
22. Approximate
23. Make boundaries
24. Think, think, think
25. Prove things
26. Disprove things
27. Calculate
28. Arithmetic
29. Draw pictures
30. Make art
31. Observe patterns
32. Simplify problems
33. Make assumptions
34. Make mistakes
35. Consider the infinite
36. Consider the very small
37. Act out problems
38. Factor
39. Speak the language of creation
40. Speak the language of the universe
41. Speak the language of God
42. Collaborate
43. Get help
44. Use resources
