Jan 24, 2016 - Math Circle 2.0

Stone distribution

Anya brought 12 beautiful stones.  If we were going to distribute the stones to 3 friends, how many stones would each friend receive. How many stones would each friend receive if we were going to distribute to only 2 friends.

Third dimension

We played battleship on a grid.  How would we track an airplane by adapting the grid system?

Making shapes with coins

We tried to make shapes with a defined number of coins on the grid.  We could make squares and rectangles with a certain number of coins.

Jan 17, 2016 - Math Circle 2.0

Greater than or less than review

The students compared two numbers and used the greater than, less than, and equal signs.  The large dinosaur helped us understand the sign direction.

Battleship with squares and rectangles

We reviewed coordinates on the grid.  Darrin hid a square battleship and a rectangle battleship on the grid.  The students used their cooridinate skills to find the two battleships.

Jan 10, 2016 - Math Circle 2.0

Number line addition and subtraction

Used a coin to "hop" on the number line. Hopped to the right for addition (+).

Hopped to the left for subtraction (-).

Introduced plus and minus sign.

Greater or equal expression

Dinosaurs are very hungry.  They will eat the pile of coins that is larger.  Their mouths also look like a greater than (>) or less than (<) sign.  The open mouth always points to the larger quantity.

Rectangles, squares, and area

We placed four markers on a grid to make a rectangle and a square.  The rectangle and square had the same area since four grid sections were covered in both cases.

We made a rectangle with five markers on the grid but could not make a square.  Some number of markers can make squares while others cannot.  Interesting.....

Nov 29, 2015 - Math Circle 2.0

Chess board coordinate review

The students first reviewed the coordinates of the chess board grid.  We picked a spot on the board and then identified the coordinates.  We also tried the reverse.

Missing school bus

Travis hid a school bus on the grid.  The students had to search for the school bus using the coordinates.  Think battleship.  Once the students found the first part of the school bus, the rest of the bus was quickly found.

Shapes with the grid

We used chips on the grid to make rectangles and triangles. 

nov 22

Solving some equations.

How A, B, C pay $1 each to the bus driver who has no change, having only $2, $3 and $4 dollar coins.

Cross 8 digits from 13571357135 so that the remaining number is the largest.

Homework:

1. Find, how many candies are in square and in round boxes for each of the cases:
• ▢+▢+◯=13;         ▢ +▢+◯+◯+◯=19;
• ▢ +▢+▢+◯=15;  ▢ +◯+◯+◯=21;
• ▢ +▢+▢+◯=6;    ▢ +◯+◯+◯=18;
2. Write these Mayan numbers in our common (Arabic) notation:
   
   
   
   
   

nov 8

Continue with rooms: find criterion that one can do a circle.

Solving some equations, like x+2y=4; x-y=1.

Bacteria in a glass problem

A, B, C pay $1 each, having only $2, $3 and $4 dollar coins.

Areas under a graph?

Experiment: water; stones

Nov 15, 2015 - Math Circle 2.0

Number line

We added numbers together.  We also plotted every students age on the number line.  We noted that we would need a longer number line to plot the parents' ages.

Shapes from cutting paper

When you draw a certain number of lines on a paper, how many pieces of paper do you have?  

The students determined the answers for 0 to 3.

Homework:  if you draw 4 lines, how many pieces of paper would you make if you cut along the line?  Is there a pattern developing.

Robot chess king

The king is restless. How many different squares can he travel to from square 1b. What about squares 1a and 1c.  It was charted out graphically.