I believe that in her article, Susan G. Staples was trying to convey that unexpected mathematical patterns and problems can be found in simple games and activities, and that we can use these in our classrooms to convey to students the possibility of real-world applications of math. The article revolves around a simple checker game, where three black chips and three white chips lay on the edge of a seven space board, as shown below.
The object of the game is to get the black chips where the white are, and vise versa. The only possible moves are sliding one right or left, or jumping over another chip to the empty space. The motivation of the game is to accomplish this in the least amount of moves. While studying with her class the different possibilities of moves, they found that many patterns arose that could even be written as equations with variables. At the conclusion of the article she describes how her students found this activity "exhilarating" and were fascinated by the patterns they found.I fully support the author's main idea, and believe that this article is a great demonstration of a good classroom activity for promoting mathematical applications outside of school. This is evidenced by the clear enjoyment conveyed by the students. Throughout the article it is clear to see their amusement and their internal motivation while working with the teacher on these patterns. It's clear also that they are mostly deriving the patterns and equations on their own without the teacher's help, so it seems they are gaining a relational type understanding. If mathematical patterns can be found in this simple game, I imagine there are many other activities we can use in future classroom to get similar effects.
Great job of keeping your comments organized and clear. I thought the use of a picture was helpful in understanding the set up of the game. I thought this was obivous proofread and professional. The closest I can come to finding something that you could change (though I think you are good wihout this change) would be to tie this game back into the real world. This would show what the article meant in the main point you presented in the topic sentence.
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job at describing the author's main ideas. I especially liked the diagram/picture because it clearly demonstrated to the reader what the game entailed. Overall, you nicely connected the author's ideas and summarized them nicely.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what type of equations there were able to write from this game. I can see how patterns would arise, but it was not clear to me how those patterns translate into equations. As a result, it would have been more clear if there was an example equation or a little more detail.
Good job!
I thought you did a great job with this blog. I think that it's essential to give students ideas of how math applies in every day life and seeing this article presenting that is great. You were unbiased in your description of the article and presented it well, it was easy to follow and enjoyable to read too. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, great topic sentence! It was clear and understandable. Everything after the topic sentence was interesting and detailed enough that I could get a feel of what the article was like. I especially liked how you used a picture from the article to explain one of the games. It really helped me follow along. Great job!
ReplyDeleteGood job! I like how you presented the main idea clearly and then provided an example to help the reader to understand. I think you made good choices in what to include in your blog and I thought it was written very clearly.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how much math can be found in all the world around you.
ReplyDeleteI found it helpful that you explained the game that was used in the article. However, I do wonder what kind of patterns were found, why they were helpful and meaningful for the students, and how the patterns in a simple game can be applied to real-life.