Concepts

A few days back I gave my students a few”numbers crosses” to solve as part of an escape room activity. I call them number crosses because instead of words you write numbers on the tiles and you describe those numbers in words. They work like puzzles and they can get …

In how many different orders can the 3 Binions sit in their spaceship? If the blue Binion sits in the first seat then there are two ways for the three Binions to sit. If the purple Binion sits on the first seat there are two ways for the three Binions …

Symmetry surrounds us. People, animals, plants, everything on the earth and outside is symmetrical. Symmetry is nature’s artwork that creates harmony and balance. So why not have a symmetry lesson outside, in nature. Spring and fall are the best seasons for this activity. Finding symmetrical objects with students while on …

Divisibility Rules help us figure out if a number is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 25 and 100. They help us perform a divisibility test easily and quickly. Students usually know the factors of the numbers 1-100 by grade four from practicing the multiplication facts. Divisibility rules …

Prime Factorization is the method of finding which set of prime numbers multiply together to make a number. In a previous post, we talked about factorization, which is a method of finding the factors of a number but not necessarily the prime factors. What is different with prime factorization is that we …

The order of operations is a group of rules that tells you the right order in which to solve different parts of a math problem. It is like an agreement we all made to be sure that we read and understand a problem the same way. According to the order of operations, we need to first …

In today’s post, we will talk about factorization. What it is. How it is done. How it helps us and how to help students understand it. We will dive deep into these with an example for factors of 24. Factoring is a math operation. It is the process of breaking …

The Hindu Multiplication or Lattice multiplication is an algorithm that was first founded in the 10th century in India. This method was later adopted and introduced in Europe by Leonardo Fibonacci in his Liber Abaci. The method is also called Lattice Multiplication because it requires a rectangular lattice with diagonals drawn through the cells. Each cell …

Pythagoras of Samos Pythagoras of Samos was a Greek mathematician and philosopher (c. 570 – c. 495 BC). He is known best for the proof of the important Pythagorean theorem, which is about right triangles. He taught a group of mathematicians, called the Pythagoreans, who worshiped numbers and lived like monks. Pythagoras was a great influence on Plato. Pythagoras was born in Samos, a …