More Beautiful, Creative Student Solutions

Today's post shows some additional student work.  Mustard Seed students in grades 6 - 8 are working in teams of 3 to solve difficult problems, and then come up with submissions that demonstrate their thinking, and reveal the kernel of mathematical insight that each problem requires.

A Sixth Grade team decided to build a 3-dimensional model to show all the possible squares that can be created from dots in a 5 x 5 grid (the How Many Squares? problem posted January 15).

After counting the 50 possible squares, the team correctly calculated the area of each square.  For all of the tilted squares, the calculations are not trivial!

The Le Havre to New York problem also led to many creative submissions.

The ship was built by a 7th Grade team.  The Captain's Log in the foreground records the number of ships seen each day.  The last page explains why the total count is 15.  It also explains how to use the lifesavers (actual, edible lifesavers on both the port and starboard sides) to act out the mathematical dynamic of 15 ships meeting on the 7 day voyage.  Brilliant!

Another 7th Grade team produced an essay, then added a wordless 18-second animation to show why the answer needs to be 15.

Le Havre to New York animation 

This is the picture of mathematical elegance.  Again, brilliant!

It is an honor to work with such insightful, thoughtful students.  I wish we could show you all the amazing work being produced in this season!