Looney Labs Educators Mailing list Archive

[Steven Greenstein <blue42@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi again,

First, let me tell you how much I appreciate these conversations. Actually, you've been doing all the talking; I've just been asking questions. To show that I'm grateful, I'm willing to do the correlations to Texas standards.

Second, since I mentioned correlations. This is an excerpt from an article on Games in the Classroom from the Center for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching at the University of Exeter. The article also briefly describes the plan one school used to integrate games into the curriculum.

The link: http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/trol/trol/gameclas.htm
The excerpt:

Why games? How can games be used to further mathematical education? This question has to be addressed and answered if we are to devote time and resources to playing games in the classroom. Let us first look at some questions which players might pose to themselves on settling down to play a game, and the mathematical heading under which we might class such a question.
Form of question:	Mathematical heading:
1. "How do I play this?"	Interpretation
2. "What is the best way of playing?"	Optimisation
3. "How can I make sure of winning?"	Analysis
4. "What happens if . . . ?"	Variation
5. "What are the chances of . . . ?"	Probability
Given a chance to develop answers to questions like that could lead to statements commencing as listed below, together with the mathematical idea being covered in such a statement.
Form of statememt:	Mathematical idea:
6. "This game is the same as . . ."	Isomorphism
7. "You can win by . . ."	A particular case
8. "This works with all these games . . ."	Generalisation
9. "Look, I can show you it does . . ."	Proving
10. "I record the game like this . . ."	Symbolisation and Notation

-Steven

-- 
Life is too short for long division.