Sara Van Der Werf inspired me last year with her post titled Why You Need a PLAY TABLE in your mathematics classroom ASAP. I’ve seen merit in using play to teach and learn mathematics for some time now. What Sara’s post did was make me long to be back in a mathematics classroom so I could have such a play table!
Last week I started working at the American Academy of Innovation, a charter school nearby that engages students in learning through projects and other activities.
Each member of the faculty was given the assignment to make something that reflects his or her teaching philosophy. Here’s the one I put together:
On my display, I included the words, “Experiential Learning Helps Students Understand Their Capacity.” That’s my teaching philosophy.
The wording I used was intentional.
- “Their” might refer to the students or to the geometric solids.
- “Capacity” has two appropriate definitions stated so perfectly by Google in the screenshot below:
1) the ability or power the students “have to do, experience, or understand something”, and 2) the maximum amount the geometric solids can contain.
The scattered rice symbolizes that these learning experiences can sometimes be messy. We will learn more if we aren’t afraid to make mistakes or a little mess.
I am so excited! I’ve taken all my math toys out of storage and will have an ever-changing play table in my classroom where students can play and learn mathematics. Thank you, Sara Van Der Werf for inspiring me!
Now I’ll write a little about the number 1192:
- 1192 is a composite number.
- Prime factorization: 1192 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 149, which can be written 1192 = 2³ × 149
- The exponents in the prime factorization are 3 and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (3 + 1)(1 + 1) = 4 × 2 = 8. Therefore 1192 has exactly 8 factors.
- Factors of 1192: 1, 2, 4, 8, 149, 298, 596, 1192
- Factor pairs: 1192 = 1 × 1192, 2 × 596, 4 × 298, or 8 × 149
- Taking the factor pair with the largest square number factor, we get √1192 = (√4)(√298) = 2√298 ≈ 34.52535
1192 is the sum of two consecutive prime numbers:
593 + 599 = 1192
34² + 6² = 1192
1192 is the hypotenuse of a Pythagorean triple:
408-1120-1192 calculated from 2(34)( 6), 34² – 6², 34² + 6²
It is also 8 times (51-140-149)
1192 is a cool-looking 3322 in BASE 7