Where parallel lines meet

Ricardo Scucuglia writes ...

Here is a puzzle we pose at our concerts. 

Molly steps out of her tent. She walks south 1 km. Then west 1 km. She sees a bear. She gets scared and runs north 1 km, arriving back at her tent. How is this possible and what colour was the bear?

Listen to the song Parallel Lines from a grade 2 classroom that solves this puzzle. See an interview with their teacher.

Does this topic belong in a grade 2 classroom?” I think it does - after all children do live on a sphere, where parallel lines are much more interesting than parallel lines never meet.

It`s interesting that big ideas of math, like what parallel might mean, can be explored by really young children. It`s fun to explore math that has a low floor (you can engage with minimal math knowledge) and a high ceiling (it can be extended to very sophisticated mathematics).

“Low floor and high ceiling” rocks! 

Ricardo

We love you!

Ian Parliament writes ...

I could not believe the great response to our shows last month, at the board office in London, Ontario. Hearing the kids enthusiastically chant "We Love Math" and "We Love You" was very exciting. What a great crowd! Special thanks to the Thames Valley District School Board for this nice gift.
Hope to see you guys again soon.
Ian 

What did you do in math today?

What makes for good math teaching and learning?
In our work in grade 1-8 classrooms, we judge the quality of teaching and learning by the quality of the stories children tell when asked:
       "What did you do in math today?"
The common answer to this question is "Nothing" or "I don't know," and we work with students to help them develop the math knowledge and communication skills for telling good math stories.
The research performance below summarizes our approach.
How does this resonate with you?

What counts as mathematics?

In 2003-6 we hosted 4 symposia at UWO, sponsored by the Fields Institute, exploring the connections between mathematics and narrative.
One of our keynote speakers was Apostolos Doxiadis, a math prodigy who became an author and filmaker. His most recent book is Logicomix.
Doxiadis said that mathematics education will not change unless what counts as mathematics first changes.
What needs to also count as mathematics, he suggested, are the stories of mathematics. 
In January, Richard Barwell (University of Ottawa) did an interesting presentation at the Fields Institute on "How mathematicians talk about mathematics." One thing he shared was part of a transcript he created  of  Marcus du Sautoy (University of Oxford) and Ian Stewart (University of Warwick) speaking on BBC program In Our Time about the Poincare Conjecture.
Richard was kind enough to share the transcript with me, and I used it to create the song below.
Whis is this song? Is it a story? Is it mathematics? Is it both? What do you think?

We actually had three different versions of this song before we settled on this one - which is now one of my favourire Joy of X songs!

Can I have your autograph?

In April we did a Joy of X concert at Kenilworth Public School and at the end one of the teachers came up to me and asked, "Would it be fine if the children get autographs on their booklets?" (Everyone at our concerts gets a booklet of songs and activities.)
"Of course," I replied, a little excited.
In education you sometimes get some polite applause after a presentation, but requests for autographs are quite rare.
As the children lined up in a long row in front of me, I was thinking, "Do I just sign my name, or do I add a comment as well?"
My experience as a university professor just hasn't prepared me for such situations.
Then the line stared moving and the children ... walked right past me ... and headed to where Ian and Ryan were standing.