Welcome to the 36th edition of
Math Teachers at Play!
 |
| How many rhombs can be traced on the edges of this figure? |
36 has long been one of my favorite numbers, but faced with this carnival, it was hard to figure out why. It's a square number that's a product of two squares, but that's not too rare. (Why?) It's the 6th perfect square and the sum of the first six odds, but that's not too remarkable. (Why?) It's the 8th triangular number, but not a Sierpinski step or anything... wait! It's a
square triangular number? How common is that? 1, 36, then...?
 |
8+9+9+10... will numbers like that have a special property? |
NumberDenise, the founder of this here carnival here, has an activity on
Times Tac Toe at
Let's Play Math.
Erlina at
Mathematics for Teaching (formerly keeping Math Simple) has a nice
introduction to integers based on sorting.
 |
Can you see the four 9-squares and nine 4-squares in this brick? |
Guillermo has posts on
addition and
subtraction of integers. He updated recently from his old wordpress domain to
mathandmultimedia.com.
Marilyn at
Mad Kane's Humor Blog had a
Pi Day limerick. Given Pi Day's proximity to St. Patrick's Day, that's a double score.
Bonus: Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks had
mathy St. Patrick's jokes.
Pat blogged at
Pat's Blog, hmmm,
about Pi from a classic Venn illustration in 1888 to an internet meme cartoon from 2011.
John has fascinating info on a class of prime numbers called the
Limerick Primes at
the Endeavor.
 |
How can you quickly determine if 1926 is a multiple of 36? Is it close? |
AlgebraMimi at
I Hope This Old Train Breaks Down... has a complete activity on (beyond)
composition of functions, adapting and extending an NCTM activity, and also an idea for a neat telephone function composition activity. She's prolific, so poke around the blog while you're there.
Alexander, author of the amazing
Cut-the-Knot, has a great
discussion of inverse functions, relating three different
Mathematics Teacher articles at the
CTK Insights blog.
 |
How big is this 36 in real life? Why do you think so? |
GeometryBecky at
Wide Open Campus has a quick little activity called
Nature's Pattern Blocks.
Chris at
M.O.B. has an activity on
Mirror Imaging Monsters. Arrrgh, reflectional symmetry.
Maria at
Homeschool Math Blog has an excellent
problem with a chord. Good challenge with a different perspective.
ConnectionsKatie has a travel site, Tripbase, with the nine most
mathematically interesting buildings. I might make it ten for either the
Plaza de España or the
Alhambra in Spain, both of which have some great tessellations. What would you add?
Cheong ponders
Are You a Number? at
Singapore Math.
RepresentationCaroline at
Maths Insider has a post on strategies for your
visual, auditory or tactile learner.
Sue, writing at
Math Mama Writes..., use
graphs to make connections to increase her understanding of trig identities.
I never got a chance to clean up and make pretty this 36 knot that I designed for this carnival. Why on earth would I think that this somehow related to 36?
 |
Why would 36 degrees be newsworthy? |
Teaching and LearningRachel at Quirky Mama has
monthly math activities for preschoolers.
Maria at
The Math Mom recommends a short post with 5 tips for
not transferring your math anxiety or a long and serious post on if it's
okay to be smart.
Peter has a collection of
links to enthuse about math at
Travels in a Mathematical World. Peter is half of the
Math/Maths podcast.
Jacob tackles
memory vs. mastery learning at
License to Teach.
What about this?Carson shared a nice graphic relating math to careers at
When Am I Going to Use This? But it's at an online education site, which Dan Meyer wrote quite
forcefully against, in terms of predatory recruitment, at
dy/dan. He was writing specifically about the Top N lists. What do you think?
The other issue to be on the look out for is the
EduSolidarity online rally, March 22nd. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
So Long and No Longer
Sorry this was a wee bit late. I had a busy couple of days between
Knot Fun (Celtic knot activity on axioms) and a Tech Symposium presentation, for which I assembled this glog (interactive poster) about the
Tech I Use. See you next month inside
Maths Insider hosted by Caroline.
Submit an article!
Mathy pictures made in
Geogebra. Other pix from Flickr - the photographer's name for each is in the file name. And a special MTAP shout out to
Leo Reynolds, who has got to be the most prolific number photographer in history.