Remember staring at a chalkboard that was literally crammed with numbers, letters and symbols that you still don’t quite understand to this day? Yeah, most of us don’t have the fondest memories of math class… let’s not make our kids feel the same way!
is a new Science World feature exhibition that aims to stimulate imaginations and build math muscles in visitors of all ages.
With 20 interactive activities aimed at getting kids moving and working together to explore basic concepts of math, Math Moves! helps to ensure success in both middle and high school classrooms. Let’s cut to the chase, math can be really challenging for kids and adults, so let’s try injecting a little fun into the equation. Here’s a 5/20 of what to expect:
1. Understanding Ratios with Shadows
In this exhibition, kids can experiment with the placement of objects to make their own shadow stories. Kids will experience concepts of ratio and proportion by moving the objects in order to grow and reduce the size of each shadow image. Understanding ratio and proportion is a must for the classroom, but these concepts are also constants in everyday life. From adjusting ingredients in recipes to planning a household budget, this skillset is absolutely essential.
2. Having Fun with Geometry and Ginormous Chairs
Kids will learn about the geometric concept of similarity by sitting in chairs that are proportionally identical in every way, they only vary in size. Chairs range from BFG size to teeny-tiny, offering a math lesson that doubles as a photo opp for your Instagram feed.
3. Making Math Creative with Drawing Machines
The perfect gateway into math for creative kids! By using a set of proportional gears on an ingenious drawing machine, kids can create beautiful and mathematically complex designs, allowing them to flex their art skills while taking in a math lesson along the way. Share the final result with other visitors or take it home and hang it on the refrigerator door.
4. Directing Math Movies
Kids can create stop-motion movies, and then play them back at double or half speed to better understand fractions and ratios. What does it look like if you take four shots of every scene before moving props to their next position? Only one way to find out!
5. Math That’s Almost a Videogame
Visitors can create and record short "dance" patterns and then try to replicate them at twice or half the speed. It will also be possible for visitors to select patterns from a small library of existing selections. This is great way to stimulate your kids’ imagination while building math skills along the way.
With another school year upon us, Math Moves! is an awesome opportunity to prove that math is more than just numbers on a page. By letting kids explore each exhibit, you’re more likely to help them develop their own personal understanding of math and its importance in daily life. This will help them appreciate why succeeding in math is important, beyond a letter grade or test score. Hey, math class isn’t going anywhere, so we might as well try to get our kids excited about it.
