October 17, 2018
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Comments Off on The Fibonacci Sequence
After watching a TED Talk by Arthur Benjamin concerning Fibonacci numbers, I was intrigued, to say the least. I have never really heard much about different number sequences and haven’t ever thought about looking into them, until now. Benjamin talks about how there is a focus on children having to learn calculations that they will […] Continue reading
October 17, 2018
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Comments Off on Maths and Art
An input i found very interesting, and thoroughly enjoyed, from the Discovering Maths module, was about how maths can be creative. I have to admit, this thought had never really crossed my mind. We spent time talking about, and looking at, tessellation’s and different forms of islamic art. Although I have seen both of these […] Continue reading
October 17, 2018
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Comments Off on Liping Ma – The Fundamentals of Mathematics
What are the Fundamental Principals of Mathematics important to children today? To begin with, what are the Fundamental Principals of Mathematics? According to Ma (2010), the PUFM as “the understanding of the terrain of fundamental mathematics that is deep, broad and through.” From this explanation it is seen that in order to have an […] Continue reading
October 15, 2018
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Comments Off on Nothing Matters!
There’s no denying zeros existence within our number system. 0 represents nothing, e.g. there’s zero (0) of something. But this representation leads me to question whether 0 is really necessary at all! How important is it to teach children about 0? Do we even need to? Its pretty well known that zero is far from […] Continue reading
October 10, 2018
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Comments Off on Fibonacci Numbers, an exciting number sequence!
The Fibonacci Number Sequence is a number sequence that creates a beautiful pattern. The sequence starts with 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34… and so on! The number sequence was first introduced to Western European Mathematics by Leonardo Pisano in 1202 (Anirudh (2015 )). The sequence was also named after Leonardo as he was also known as Fibonacci. Before his […] Continue reading
October 10, 2018
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Comments Off on Doctor Who?
Time Travel – a Doctor Who-esque phenomenon that has been a fantasy to many for thousands of years. But it turns out that we have been doing it all along. How? You might ask. The answer is simply light, the five-letter word that we all take for granted. Light has been enabling us to see […] Continue reading
October 9, 2018
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Comments Off on Fibonacci Sequence – Significant Coincidence?
The Fibonacci Sequence is a fairly new concept to me, having only seen a flash of the term in a textbook during my MA1 school placement. The Discovering Maths module is responsible for properly introducing me to this concept, however it was a shock to learn that in reality, this peculiar set of numerals have […] Continue reading
October 8, 2018
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Comments Off on What do you mean numbers don’t exist?!
Yes, you did see it right. Apparently, numbers do not exist. My mind is still trying to process how such a concept could even be possible after believing all my life that numbers are the fundamental basis of mathematics. After much time pondering and challenging this, it appears to be true… We use numbers everyday, […] Continue reading
October 7, 2018
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Comments Off on What is a Number?
We come into contact with numbers every day. Time, working out how many portions of dinner we’ll need to make or simply “hey what’s your number?”. But have we ever taken the time to think, what is a number and why do we even use them? My first question is, why does the number three […] Continue reading
October 5, 2018
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Comments Off on Maths Anxiety
Maths anxiety is very real. Not only that, but it is very common. During school, I would always hear people saying ‘I hate maths’ , or ‘I’m so confused’ and ‘I can’t do this.’ I was definitely one of those people, and similar to many – maths was the only subject that made me feel […] Continue reading
October 5, 2018
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Comments Off on Can maths be taught creatively?
To most people the common perception of maths is it being never ended pages of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division sums, so imagine maths being taught creatively? Yes, I was surprised at this thought too. Personally, I am a very creative person and have a strong love for art, so I find the possibility of art […] Continue reading
October 5, 2018
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Comments Off on Need a hand with maths? You can count on me!
Should children be allowed to use their fingers to help them count? Children are often made to feel silly for using their fingers to count. As a child, I struggled with numbers – they seemed completely alien and frankly they intimidated me. I was told numerous times by numerous teachers to ‘stop using your […] Continue reading
October 4, 2018
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Comments Off on Is there a place for old mathematical concepts in modern day maths?
This week we discovered Pascal’s Triangle – a number pattern in the form of a triangle where the numbers above added together give you a value for a new row. Within this number pattern, there are all different kinds of maths intertwined allowing us to explore it further in depth. However, whilst learning about old […] Continue reading
October 3, 2018
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Comments Off on The Art of Maths
When this concept was explained in our lecture, I did not fully understand. I feel this may happen many more times throughout the module as I familiarise myself with maths again. I decided to remain positive towards maths and explore the idea for myself until I both understood the how and the why. I think that I understand that […] Continue reading
October 3, 2018
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Comments Off on Maths IS important!
“Is maths important?” my lecturer asked during a recent Discovering Mathematics workshop. My exam driven former self would have explicitly answered no to this question, as I had all sorts of weird and wonderful equations and rules drilled into my head at this point – none of which I have actually implemented within my everyday […] Continue reading
October 2, 2018
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Comments Off on Can a raise in attainment within mathematics be created and maths anxiety destroyed?
Discovering maths has really opened my mind and has got me thinking about how I want to teach maths in my future classroom and what kind of teacher in maths I want to be. After one of the discovering maths lectures it allowed me to begin to ask myself a series of questions around the […] Continue reading
October 2, 2018
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Comments Off on Maths Being Creative?
Maths Being Creative? When I think of ways to describe Maths, creative definetly does not appear on the list or anywhere near it. The common perception of Maths is long, difficult equations, hard to understand problems and a few questions involving graphs. Overall, it is something quite dreary and dull. However, Maths can be a […] Continue reading
October 1, 2018
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Comments Off on Tessellations
Last week we had a fun and exciting lecture which focused on tessellations and their link to Islamic Art. . Firstly, a tessellation is a pattern of flat shapes which is repeated. When the pattern is repeated the shapes fit perfectly together in order to cover a surface, with no gaps between the shapes. You can […] Continue reading
October 1, 2018
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Comments Off on Creativity in Mathematics
When I first read the title of the first presentation I thought “No way? How can mathematics be creative?”. This is when I began to realise that I did not “hate” maths in the way I thought I did because it is actually an extremely powerful subject which is used in everyday life which we … Continue reading Creativity in Mathematics → Continue reading
October 1, 2018
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Comments Off on Maths: Something to be enjoyed rather than passed
I always saw Maths as an important subject, an important subject to be passed not enjoyed. When I was in school there was a complete lack of enjoyment within this subject, there was no creativity within the provided work, it was very much copying questions from a textbook. This procedural approach didn’t ensure the understanding […] Continue reading
