We used skills and attitudes involved with design thinking to frame this experience. Math TASK Parties are most directly inspired by Oliver Herring's TASK party movement which is an admirable attempt to infuse spontaneous creativity into public spaces. The Math TASK Parties were excellent ways to prototype a number of creative numeracy tasks in a casual but structured environment.
After some warm-up discussions and videos, a bucket of creative tasks around rational numbers was shared with the students. They were encouraged to randomly pick out tasks until they found one that inspired them to create and explore. Students were encouraged to go further than the provided tasks by seeking extensions and generating their own tasks.
With the very first prototype activity, there was a lot of positive energy - students were designing games, measuring objects, drafting dream apartment blueprints, interpreting Euclid's Elements and much more. One group took one of the rational number card game tasks and built on it to create a very exciting game at the front of the school - Irrational Hopscotch!
See below for links, instructions and starting tasks.
Rational Numbers TASK Party!
Warm-Up Videos
Oliver Herring TASK [to understand guiding principles]
Three is a Magic Number [an example of creative math exploration]
Math Party [to get our groove on while first tasks were selected]
INSTRUCTIONS
• Take a task
from the task bucket. If you are keen to
take this task on, have at it. If you
are not feelin’ it, try another.
• Each task
could be something that takes 5 minutes or could be a massive project depending
on perspective and inspiration. Once you
finish a task return the slip of paper and draw another one. And so on.
• You are also
encouraged to develop your own fun tasks around math. Good ones can be shared
with your teacher to be put in the bucket.
STARTING TASKS
Create two fractions that are
in lowest terms where the denominators are two different 4-digit numbers and
each digit has a different value. Add
those numbers together (show your steps).
Draw a blueprint for your
dream apartment. Label the dimensions using both fractions and decimals. Show calculations that provide the area and
perimeter of each room.
Choose a Proposition from
Book V of Euclid’s Elements that explores proportions (link on D2l and found
at: http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/bookV/bookV.html#defs). Provide a numerical AND visual example of the
Proposition. See Mr. Davidge for clarification if needed.
Do the Rational Numbers
Timeline Worksheet. As an extension,
create an artistic presentation of your timeline. Include other moments in your life if you
like.
Choose an object in the
classroom. Sketch a diagram of the object. Measure the dimensions and label
them in your diagram. Show calculation
that find both the surface area AND volume of your object.
Create a visual lesson that
teaches how to successfully ADD fractions with both strategies and examples.
Create a visual lesson that
teaches how to successfully DIVIDE fractions with both strategies and examples.
Create a visual lesson that
teaches how to successfully MULTIPLY fractions with both strategies and
examples.
Create a visual lesson that
teaches how to successfully DIVIDE fractions with both strategies and examples.
Create a game using a deck of
cards that teaches how to work with integers (positive and negative numbers).
Create a game using a deck of
cards that teaches how to work with fractions.
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