Math Teachers at Play #11

(by L. Marie)

There's a whole bunch here. Get comfy, settle in, and enjoy!

What's Special About This Number? says the Maoris used base 11, 11² = 3⁰ + 3¹ + 3² + 3³ + 3⁴, 11³ = 3² + 19² + 31², and 11 x 11 = 65 + 56 (palindromic equality). And of course Wolfram Alpha (WA) has something to say about 11, too.

For this issue of Math Teachers at Play, we have games, geometry, arithmetic, logic, and some test prep.

Games

Dana, at School for Us, brings us Score 21.

John Golden, at Math Hombre, brings us his game, Michigan Smith (cousin to Indiana Jones, doncha know), which involves measurement, dice, and a bit of strategy.

Clemencia Rosado, at Storytime and more, brings us M for Math Games.

Geometry

Mike, from Walking Randomly, asks "Can anyone think of interesting extensions or variations to this system of wheels?" His Wheels on Wheels on Wheels is a spirograph extravaganza. (And here's another at Learning in Mathland.)

I've seen a lot of What Can You Do With This? posts all over the mathblogosphere. (Does that make it a meme yet?) Ryan, over the water at Maths at SBHS, brings us another What can you do with this? It's a visual illusion done with perspective and enlargement. Very cool.

And here's one from Watch Math on Slopes of Perpendicular Lines.

Arithmetic
John Cook, from The Endeavor, brings you Three rules of thumb. I've converted feet to miles, but never seconds to nanocenturies!

Tony, at This Young Economist, brings us 30-20-10 Pricing. How much do you really get off when you get a 30% discount, and another 20% discount, and another 10% discount? Not as much as you might expect...

Maria Miller, at Homeschool Math Blog, brings us Dividing decimals.

Kendra, at Pumpkin Patch, also joins us from far away to give us a living math lesson using dominoes.

Denise, at Let's play math!, brings us Solving Complex Story Problems II. She says, "Diagrams make it easy to model a multi-step word problem. When I was in school, we wouldn't have seen this sort of problem until algebra, but with these models, a 5th-grader can solve it." I've been hearing a lot about Singapore's bar diagrams. I'm looking forward to trying them out with some kids.

Logic
Misty, at Homeschool Bytes, says, "Make math interesting by mixing regular household items with math concepts, like a handful of candy, two circles, and the concept of venn diagrams." See her post on Venn Diagrams.

jd, over at JD2718, presents 5 logic puzzles. I think logic puzzles are my favorite mathy pastime. Thanks for some doozies!

Test Prep

Mr. D, at I Want to Teach Forever, has a question for us at the end of his post on 3 Ideas to Prepare Students for College Placement Exams. Can anyone help him find an answer?


And I thought I'd throw in one last bit. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about math and mountain climbing, and just now found out about this lovely post about math being like trees.

[Next time I host, I'll try to add a bit more spice. I've put this together in the middle of a marvelous week-long institute on running math circles, put on at Notre Dame by the folks from the Boston area Math Circle. That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of math teachers at play using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. Technorati tags: math teachers at play, blog carnival.]