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