Events of November 2009
- First Fridays -- Kids Night
- Nov 6, 2009
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Downtown South Bend, Incorporated sponsors a series of First Friday
events in downtown South Bend to highlight local businesses and
bring people together. November's event offered fun activities for
families with children. We participated by teaching modular origami
at Spark Fine Stationary on Michigan Street.
- George Rickey Walk Family Day
- Nov 7, 2009
-
The South Bend Museum of Art offers Family Days on most weekends.
During this Family Day, we first learned modular origami to build
several different kinds of shapes. During the second part of the
event, we viewed six George Rickey sculptures on display this year
in downtown South Bend. At each sculpture, we discussed related
math, science, and art questions. South Bend Museum of Art curator
Jessi Loyd walked with us to provide an artist's perspective on each
piece.
- Family Math -- Pythagorean Theorem
- Nov 15, 2009
-
Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and
their families to have fun together while learning about a math
topic. The topic for this session was the Pythagorean Theorem.
Participants used a rope with equally spaced knots to see how the
ancient Egyptians constructed right triangles in order to build
the pyramids. Participants also explored several proofs of the
Pythagorean Theorem. Finally, students discussed the amazing
fact that the Pythagorean Theorem does not just apply to squares
built on the legs and hypotenuse of a right triangle, but also
applies to the areas of any similar figures analagously constructed.
- South Bend Community School Corporation Consulting and Professional Development
- Nov 17, 2009 – Jan 7, 2010
-
The South Bend Community School Corporation held a Teacher Academy
during the 2009 -- 2010 academic year for thirty K-4 teachers.
Meeting in groups of ten, teachers spent three full-time two-week
sessions discussing classroom management, best practices in
instruction, and understanding children from diverse cultures and
socio-economic backgrounds. We provided each group of ten teachers
with two days on best practices in mathematics instruction.
- Ladies of Notre Dame Origami Night
- Nov 18, 2009
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We taught members of the Ladies of Notre Dame to fold origami polyhedra.
- IUSB's Triton High School Visit Day
- Nov 19, 2009
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As part of IUSB's Triton High School Visit Day, we presented
"Careers in Math, Science, and Technology" for the prospective
college students.
- Family Math -- Order of Operations
- Nov 22, 2009
-
Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and
their families to have fun together while learning about a math
topic. The topic for this session was Order of Operations.
Participants explored the consequences of not specifying an order
for performing various arithmetic operations. Participants also
tackled the four 4's challenge -- building each number from 1 to
50 using exactly four 4s, no other digits, and any operations.
