The first is a really funny video about the history of numbers done by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. It's called "Story of 1" and I have my friend Laura to thank for this. My kids loved it. It's about an hour long.
Incidentally, if you are interested in covering the history of math and science, a great curriculum resource is "Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way" by Joy Hakum. My daughter took a co-op class using this book last year. They also used the workbook and did many of the activities as a group. She complained through the whole thing, but I must say that she continues to refer back to this book many months later and those stories and concepts really stuck. It's a treasury of science and math history.
Another thing that keeps coming back to my radar are these videos by Vihart. They are just a lot of fun. Here is one on triangles:
Another one we like is "Infinity Elephants"
Separately, someone re-posted this TED talk by John Bennett, which basically says that most kids don't need higher math and High School math should just consist of thinking games. I'm not sure I agree with him, but it's an entertaining talk.
Who says math can't be fun?
Who knew 1 could be so much fun or funny. Now I finally sort of understand how computers can use only 1 & 0. The doodles are fun and informative. But, I have to agree with Bennett, Math should be an elective, just like some of the higher sciences and reasoning skills can be learned through other means. Have you looked into Danica Mckellar's books? Her's was one of the examples. Mom
ReplyDeleteA triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments.
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