Mon - October 13, 2003

Manhole Covers and Other Lids



Driving around town? Ever notice what shape manhole covers are? Always round. Why not square or rectangular?

Hint - think about containers of all kinds. What are their lids like? For which shapes are the lids more likely to slip through? Play with some containers that have round lids versus square lids, if you can find some. Next time you're in the grocery store, focus on lids and their shapes.

Think about shapes of all kinds of other things like houses, cars, chairs, etc. Think about why they are shaped the way they are.

Posted at 09:00 PM     Read More  

Where to Find Math


A list of all the places you might find math concepts to talk about or experience.


Calendar
Time
Budget
Money Change
Sale Prices
Cooking
Sewing
Building
Games
Weather
Banking
Maps
Mileage
Poetry
Music
Playing Pool
Scale Drawings
Scale Models

Posted at 08:56 PM     Read More  

Skateboard Ramps



Building a skateboard ramp is a great opportunity to talk about the slope of a line - an important concept in algebra and calculus. Talk about how much the ramp should rise vertically for every inch of horizontal movement. Wheelchair ramps go up about 1 inch for every 12 inches of horizontal movement - the slope is 1/12 or 1:12.

Draw diagrams and identify different possible ramps by their "slope."

Posted at 08:53 PM     Read More  

Football Scores



Watching Monday night football? Wonder aloud how likely it is that a team will end a game with exactly 11 points. You might want to make a chart or table or list of all the possible ways a team could score exactly 11 points. If you're really into this, list all the ways they could score - all the ways to score under 14, maybe? Talk about the likelihood of different possible scores? Which happen more often? Why? come up with an estimate of the probability of the different ways of scoring - a safety is less likely than a touchdown or a field goal, for example. This is just talk - but if you're a football fan, its what you live for, right? Making tables or charts helps kids learn to organize data and deal with it in an orderly way.

Ways to Score:
Touchdown - 6 pts
Conversion - 1 or 2 pts
Field Goal - 3 pts
Safety - 2 pts

Posted at 08:48 PM     Read More  

Allowance



It doesn't matter how much or how often you give them money, the point is for the kids to have money of their own to decide how to spend. Make it clear, in advance, what they're supposed to pay for with their own money. Many many hours have been spent poring over the American Girl Dolls catalog, adding and figuring in shipping and so on, in our house. My teenage girls pay for their own clothes and gifts for their friends. All three of our girls have their own bank accounts and we hand them the statements when they arrive so that they can see how much interest they've earned.

Their allowances are not tied to doing chores or anything like that. This is simply money we give them to have full control over - no having to ask if they want to spend it on something.

Posted at 08:24 PM     Read More  

©