Monday, August 11, 2008

Getting Ready For A Brave New Math World


As I sit here, a few days before the kids roll into class, I am thinking about math issues that 10-11 year-old kids would really engage with. I am asking math geeks from all over the planet to send me one idea that they think that the kids would really get a kick out of (preposition, see, I am not an English teacher!).


I know they love to gather info on the size of feet, circumference of heads..., but I really want to start out the year with a meaningful challenge that will generate buzz. I want them to text someone about how cool their work seems.


We are working on building number sense (4 basic operations). So, I would love suggestions in those areas.


Money? "Green" issues? Tech milestones (how much will I have to pay if I go over my texting limit by 1000 texts?)?


Help?


By the way how do you subtract 269 from 412? (with no paper, it took me 8 seconds) What you got for me?

3 comments:

Miss Happ said...

Hey Tom! I think you should have them figure out how many text messages they send in a week, month , year and so on. It's something I think they may get a kick out of. It may also be something they have never thought about before. Then you can have them figure out how much their parents are being charged in overage fees! Ha!

T-Cubed said...

Rachel,

I love the idea. Simple yet very engaging. I bet the real numbers are astounding

Jen S. said...

I may even be able to use your blog for my son's highschool math. what ya got for easy geometry? Jen s.