Week of Inspirational Math Summary and Reflection
In my opinion we did this week of activities to get our minds back in math mode. What I mean by math mode is to start looking for patterns again and work with our table mates to have better mindsets.
Activities
Activity #1 Building Shapes: For this activity we got a rope about four feet long and had to make a shape with it. Once we did it we had to convince to the skeptic (Dr.Drew) that it was truly that shape with the right lengths and and angles.
Activity #2 Number Visual Pennies: This activity we got 100 pennies with these 100 we had to put them into stack groups of 3, 5, 6 , 7, and 9. Each group of stacks had to have an equal amount on each penny but outside the group the others could have another number.
Activity #3 One-Cut Geometry: In this activity we got one sheet of patty paper and had to draw a scalene triangle in the middle. Once we did that we had to figure how one cut could get it out of the middle, this usually involved a lot of folding
Activity #4 Square Mania: For this last activity we had a six by two rectangle and a four by three rectangle. In theses shapes we had to find as many squares as we could.
Video #1:
The very first video is about how in math there are various strategies that we use to help us get past difficult problems. The message in my mind is that no matter how hard the problem is there’s ways around it, and if math is difficult you can use some of these strategies. This video’s message is important because it’s five points are key points in helping us in math.
Video #2:
The second video focused on how it doesn’t matter how fast you are at math but if you're thinking about the problem and exploring all the elements of the problem. This is especially important to me because I’m not the fastest at math, every time we had speed tests in elementary school I’d always think I’m just bad at math.
Video #3:
This video was about the myth of a math person. It heavily focuses on the idea that you can easily change your mind into being good at math it just takes practices. This video matters to me because I have always heard people say I’m not a math person or just which just puts them or others down.
Video #4
This video focuses on the idea of a fixed mindset vs a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset overall don’t struggle compared to a fixed mindset, they also will continue to grow at a faster rate. This idea doesn’t connect to me very much but like the last video I’ve seen people with growth mindsets copy and use other people’s answers unlike a growth mindset who will grow.
Video #5
Finally this video was about how your brain grows and mistakes are a huge part of that. The only way your brain truly learns is through mistakes. Once you mess up on a problem your brain will remember this and know the next time you cross something similar.
One Cut Geometry Problem
I chose to in depth on the one cut geometry problem, this was one of the more straight forward problems of the four. This problem required us to draw a scalene triangle on a piece of patty paper (with none of it’s side being the edge of the paper). As soon as we did this we had to cut only the triangle from the paper. The reason I’m going to explain this problem is because it made the most sense to me. Most of the other problems took me a while to understand, but with this one I understood it immediately and had the most trial and error with it. For this problem I tried at least ten different ways of folding it until I found one that worked.
One of my approaches to the problem was folding everything to the shortest side. Once I did this I cut it and saw this happened(See photo #5)
I attempted variations of this until finally I got to folding everything to the longest side and this happened (See photo #6)
A challenge I overcame was explaining to the skeptics (the class and the teacher) that this cut was equal and straight. I overcame this challenge through the trial and error I faced, once I got through these constant folds it became easier to explain my thinking to the skeptics.
One habit of mathematician I used through this problem was collaboration. Our entire table discussed what was working and how we each overcame challenges then fought them together.
Reflection
This week of inspirational math has opened my eyes to so many opportunities to share my work and collaborate with all my classmates through the document cam. I believe that this week was also a great opener because it got us thinking about problems that generally wouldn’t have much thought. This week also opened my eyes to how important it is to not have a fixed mindset and keep having a growth mindset.