Math-hour at Kindy
Occurred Events
Playing Maths with under-fives at the local Kindergarden
Fun with Quincunx: Thursday June 25, 2009 1130-1200 hours at the Early Childhood Learning Centre.
Some responses during guided Quincunx-play without interference:
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- Qn: What is Mathematics?
Ans: I dunno. (Remark: A great answer.)
- Action: Had one child drop two balls in the same way.
Observation: The balls fall into two different buckets although they look the same and were dropped by
the same child.
- Action: Other children take turns dropping balls into the Quincunx.
- Qn: How are the balls falling through the Quincunx?
Ans: The balls fall like they are dropped. (Remark: Sensitivity to initial conditions or chaos!)
- Dropped about 15 balls and pointed out that more balls fall into the middle or central buckets.
- Choice Given: Pick a bucket that the ball I am about to drop will fall in.
Choice Made: All three kids chose central buckets. (Remark: intuitive conditional probability?)
- The Best Part: Ecstatic laughs, giggles, and screams when tens of balls are dropped together.
- The data set as a SAGE dictionary type to be used in a 200 level Statistics Course at the Uni with:
(key : value) = (x Number of right turns : Number of balls that made x right turns).
sage: KindyMathsECLC25062009QuincunxData={0:0, 1:0, 2:2, 3:2, 4:4, 5:4, 6:7, 7:7, 8:8, 9:4, 10:8,
11:9, 12:4, 13:9, 14:3, 15:3, 16:1, 17:0, 18:0, 19:0, 20:1}
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Future Possibilities:
- Classifying Bivalve Shells from the New Brighton Beach and Counting
- Shaping Space with Platonic Solids in iGami (too boring?)
- Flipping the Chaotic Pendulum (CAUTION)
Last modified on
Thursday, 01-Sep-2016 20:04:57 MST and served on
Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 13:18:05 MST.
