Mathematics

“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding.” William Paul Thurston

WE ARE ALL ‘MATHS PEOPLE’

Within our maths sessions our students take part in a period of productive struggle. During this time teachers ask students to ‘have a go’ or engage with the task with a growth mindset, meaning that rather than look at a problem or question and think ‘I can’t do that’ we look at the task and say ‘What strategy can I try?’

Eddie Woo is a high school mathematics teacher who uses youtube to share his passion for mathematics, he believes that "mathematics is a sense, just like sight and touch" and that we can all embrace maths and see ourselves as mathematicians. In the clip below Eddie talks about his journey of finding a love of maths.

Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had | Eddie Woo | TEDxSydney

Maths is all around us all the time. Here are some examples of mathematical concepts in everyday life from mathsplay.org . You might like to use these pictures as stimuli for a maths talk with your children.

Some great stariting questions are:

What do you notice? What do you wonder? What is happening here? What mathematical concepts do you see?

You may even discover some wonderful examples as you move through your day. Please share them with me and I will add them to our collection!