recreational mathematics

twitterpicThis site serves a dual purpose for highlighting recreational mathematics and (primarily) elementary and middle school mathematics. Recreational mathematics was largely popularized and this site is greatly influenced by the works of Martin Gardner.  I have made a sincere effort to reference and give credit to all sources and ideas that are contained within this site. Please contact me if you find an oversight on my part.  Listed within this site are ideas related directly to recreational mathematics that I use and have used in the classroom.

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MegaMenger Project

This is our MegaMenger team with our Level 3 Menger Sponge after completing our part of the MegaMenger project.  This photo appeared in the St. Clair Times.

theteam

My students had previously worked with a making a Menger Sponge.  However, we built a Level 2 sponge with playing cards after seeing what Dr. Mosely had done with business cards.  I spoke about our Level 2 project at G4G11.  When the opportunity presented itself approximately 2 years later, we decided to join the worldwide project and build a Level 3 Menger Sponge.

g4gmengertalk

Below I have placed pictures from our Level 3 build that took from the end of September 2014 to early March 2015.  Our build was featured on television and in the local newspaper.

level0cubes  teamwork  variouslevels

pieces  morepieces  panelinginside

workingup  onthisdayinmath  buildingup2

See more photos here.

References:

Burch, E. “Odenville Middle School students build Menger Sponge” from ABC3340. http://www.abc3340.com/story/28755114/odenville-middle-school-students-build-menger-sponge Accessed 8 July 2015.

Hanner, G. “Odenville 6th-graders think outside the box” from St. Clair Times. http://www.annistonstar.com/the_st_clair_times/stclair_eedition/page-b/page_e31f82b0-34f6-5fe7-aa4b-ef7a6a23deee.html Accessed 8 July 2015.

Menger Sponge from The Institue for Figuring // Online Mathematical Paper Folding. http://theiff.org/oexhibits/menger02.html Accessed 10 May 2013.

Menger Sponge from WolframAlpha. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Menger+sponge Accessed 10 May 2013.

Weisstein, Eric W. “Menger Sponge” from MathWorld–A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MengerSponge.html Accessed 10 May 2013.

Pi Day 3/14/15

Happy Pi Day (3/14/15)!

A mile of pi:

References:

Gardner, M. (1976). The incredible dr. matrix. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

O’Shea, O. & Dudley, U. (2007). The magic numbers of the professor. Washington, DC: The Mathematical Association of America, Inc.