October 6, 2017
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Comments Off on Prehistoric Mathematics
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is almost everyone’s first memory of maths, the enjoyment of being able to count. However, I have been very naive in my thinking and believed that number systems and counting have been around forever. I have recently discovered that this is not the case. Some of the earliest evidence of […] Continue reading
October 4, 2017
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Comments Off on Maths Anxiety
I always enjoyed mathematics all the way through Primary, and never once felt anxious about participating in it. Even during the early years of High School, I still had no worries about maths and liked going to classes. This all began to change around about 3rd/4th year, when the maths became harder and more stressful. […] Continue reading
October 3, 2017
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Comments Off on Maths? Creative?
To me, maths was always equations, algebra, volume etc. It was a class which I dreaded going to in school. In the first half of the lesson, we would be taught something new and then in the second half we would be putting what we have just learnt into practice by doing textbook work. If […] Continue reading
October 3, 2017
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Comments Off on Making Maths Fun
Last week in an input with Eddie we explored how to make maths fun in our classrooms. The activity we did involved looking at tessellation – fitting shapes together to make a pattern with no gaps. We had to cut out the shapes we wanted – from a choice of triangles, squares and pentagons – […] Continue reading
October 3, 2017
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Comments Off on What is Mathematics? Why teach it?
According to Galileo (1564-1642), “the language with which God has written the universe”. A fact that I loved learning in today’s class is that Mathematics is a universal language. Knowing that it’s the same in every country across the world fascinates me. Something which I didn’t realise was that maths isn’t just in the classroom, […] Continue reading
October 3, 2017
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Comments Off on Maths, creative? No way!
Today’s class was all about mathematical shape involvement in visual illusions, symmetry and the importance of active learning. I learnt how to make and augment regular polygons in order to create an Escher-inspired tessellation or Islamic art-inspired tiling. We explored the relationship between art and mathematics and how throughout history, artists have used the properties […] Continue reading
October 3, 2017
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Comments Off on My feelings towards maths…
Personally, maths was never one of my strongest subjects at school as I found it very challenging and difficult. After dropping it as a subject in school I rarely ever needed to use the mathematic skills I had learnt, therefore, leading to me forgetting what I had learnt. As I’ve gotten older my anxiety towards […] Continue reading
October 1, 2017
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Comments Off on Maths in art? Art in maths?
Previously, I’ve heard people say, “I cannot do art” or “Art is something that I just wasn’t gifted in”. This is why one particular maths workshop came as surprise to me as it demonstrated that you can do art using maths. In class we created tessellations. Little did I know that this type of art […] Continue reading
September 30, 2017
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Comments Off on Maths Anxiety
Mark H. Ashcraft describes maths anxiety as “a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with math performance” (2002, p. 181). Math anxiety is a recognized stress disorder which, according to research shown in the attached video, 20% of our population suffer from (Turner & Carroll, 1985). It ranges from feelings of mild tension […] Continue reading
September 26, 2017
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Comments Off on Fun in a Maths Class?
Maths is much more than boring equations full of numbers! Mathematics is bursting with shapes, patterns, science, history, art, the list is goes on. so why do we just assume that maths is challenging sums? Islamic art is a perfect example of how maths links with other subjects. As Eddie explained how angles and shapes […] Continue reading
September 26, 2017
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Comments Off on First Step in Discovering Maths….
….MATHS IS EVERYWHERE! I could honestly say i tried very hard to avoid maths as soon as I walked out of school two years ago. But, stepping back into a module of discovering maths, its brought my realisation that i physically cannot escape the “terrifying fears” that comes with mathematics. No, maths isn’t really that […] Continue reading
September 26, 2017
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Comments Off on Daunting Discovering Maths
Mathematics, one of the scariest words that can be said. I feel that I suffer from maths anxiety and so when deciding to choose the discovering maths elective I felt very nervous about what to expect. However I must say, so far so good. From my experience of maths at school I always believed, what […] Continue reading
September 25, 2017
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Comments Off on Teaching mathematics progressively!
In the “School maths or intriguing maths?” workshop, I experienced mathematics being taught in an maths in an intriguing, creative and progressive way. I saw how teaching maths in a progressive way gives more depth to children’s learning which is one of the principles in Curriculum for Excellence (The Scottish Government, 2008, p.30) which furthermore, […] Continue reading
September 21, 2017
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Comments Off on What is maths?
On Monday in our third Discovering Maths input we were asked the questions what is maths and why do we teach it? This got me into thinking so what actually is maths, other than the basic formulas and calculations we always think of? We use maths on a daily basis without even knowing and when we do use […] Continue reading
September 21, 2017
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Comments Off on Investigating Volume – Regular and Irregular shapes
Volume Definition – The amount of space that a substance or object occupies, or that is enclosed within a container.https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/volume Having enjoyed mathematics at school and knowing how to calculate volume it was interesting to find out today not just how to do it but also practical methods to show the children how to work […] Continue reading
September 20, 2017
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Comments Off on More than memorising!
Can I really link everything back to basic mathematics? This is what I am keen to explore and learn about through the Discovering Mathematics module. In this blog post I am going to discuss how connecting mathematical errors made in other areas of maths can be linked back to basic, fundamental mathematical principles. In the […] Continue reading
September 18, 2017
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Comments Off on Stand and Deliver
As part of our introduction to this module it was recommended that we watch the film Stand and Deliver and to analyse the character of Jaime Escalante – a maths teacher at Garfield High School, East Los Angeles, California. We had one question to answer: Why is Jaime Escalante Different? Jaime is different because he […] Continue reading
September 14, 2017
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Comments Off on Discovering Maths in Dance
I have to admit, I am always one of the people who raise their hands when the question is asked: “Who here has an anxiety when it comes to Maths?” I still vividly remember receiving results from a maths test in primary 7 and thinking that this was it – me and maths weren’t compatible. […] Continue reading
September 14, 2017
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Comments Off on ‘Stand and Deliver’ – Mathematics Films
Inspired by the introduction of Discovering Mathematics I felt intrigued to watch the film which was suggested for TDT number 1. I enjoy watching films for leisure but also having a reason to watch this film and take some notes during it made me enjoy it even more. Stand and Deliver looks at the journey […] Continue reading
November 24, 2015
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Comments Off on Can animals count?
I know what you’re thinking. She must be crazy. Of course animals can’t count. However some scientist argue that animals have mathematical abilities since the claim of Clever Hans in 1891. Clever Hans was a horse who was reportedly able to give the answer to basic mathematical calculations giving the answer by stomping his foot. […] Continue reading
