Mathematics is a language - many mathematicians have described the process of mathematics as art and poetry. Bertrand Russell once wrote, “Mathematics possesses not only truth but supreme beauty, a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, sublimely pure and capable of a stern perfection, such as only the greatest art can show.” Other mathematicians and scientists have often written about the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in explaining the world around. Notwithstanding the poetry and the beauty, a functional knowledge of mathematics and computing is an essential skill for transacting in society.
However, to appreciate the poetry of this language or to transact, one must learn the grammar and acquire the vocabulary. And school mathematics is largely about acquiring the skills to communicate and develop the love for the language. This portal is for students and teachers to engage with this language and build those skills.
Classroom resources
This section will feature resources for classroom teaching including online, digital and other hands-on activities.
We will begin with Geometry - triangles and will be adding resources every week.
Resources for hands-on activities
This is a collection of hands-on activities that can be used for Vidyagama program. Check regularly for updates.
Romping in Numberland is an extremely interesting book where you can find some simple activities for introducing the joy of numbers. This is a great resource for bridge course or even for students to explore numbers and will help them in their number skills and operations. Click here to download.
Featured ICT resource
In this section, we will explore useful digital resources for teaching mathematics.
This week, we are featuring a video on how to prove Pythagoras theorem, using Bhaskara's dissection proof. This can be a very useful activity to be given under the Vidyagama program.
Learn Visual Programming
Turtle Blocks is a logo based programming environment for introducing students to the basics of programming.
We can use this to develop visualization, logical reasoning and algorithmic sense in students by performing various operations with the Turtle. This can help in the building of computational thinking and you can also introduce some geometry through this.
Click here for a series of lessons on introducing Turtle Blocks.
Interesting read
In this very interesting article, "engineer-mathematician" Dr Barbara Oakley talked about how mastering procedural fluency, combined with language fluency helped her master mathematics, even when she began learning advanced math at the age of 26!
Barbara Oakley is a professor of engineering at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, and the author of, most recently, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). She is also co-instructor, with Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute, of one of the world’s largest online courses, “Learning How to Learn,” with Coursera.
Your Phone number will reveal your actual Age. It will take about 15 seconds,read and do it at the same time so that you will not lose the fun.
Take a look at your last digit of your cell phone number
Use this figure and multiply by 2
Then add 5
And then multiply by 50
And then add the number 1765
The last step; with this number, subtract your birth year.
Now you see a three-digit number. The first digit is the last digit of your phone number, the next two digits are your actual age! You can use the attached spreadsheet to solve this and find out why it works!!
See more
Quizzes here.
