Fractals
I remember in elementary school when I first learned about fractals I was so fascinated and loved seeing it in the real world as I looked at trees. Also when we learned about this we made a 3D Sierpinski triangle which was so fun to see how the fractal worked.
MagnetTiles!
When I was younger I really enjoyed this toy called MagnetTiles, they were these different shapes- squares, triangles etc. and had magnetic edges so you could connect them together in all different sorts of shapes. My favorite thing to make was a castle and its not something I’ve ever really thought of as being math but there was definitely lots of geometry involved and figuring out how different shapes fit together.
Feeling of Numbers
I remember when I started to recognize different numbers, I always felt that numbers have different personalities. For example, even numbers are more cute, and odd numbers are more serious. I believe that was the beginning of my interest in mathematics.
Cards
As a kid, I loved card games and especially card tricks. There were a number of magic card tricks I learned that dealt with patterns and seemed very mathematical. Ever since I figured out how to do card tricks, I’ve tried learning to count cards because I am interested in probability problems. One reason I have a passion for math is because of how much it deals with visual patterns.
Gummy Bear Counting
I started to really enjoy math when it related to the real world. In my math class when I was young we guessed how many gummy bears were in a jar and I had no idea how to count all of them. We later used formulas to estimate the number of bears in the jar. Finally, we counted the gummy bears, and were only 2 off! It was very impressive and showed me that math is applicable in the real world and can be practical/fun.
Log Cabin Patterns
When I was really little, we had those logs that stack together to make a cabin, but you can stack them in a variety of ways. I remember really enjoying figuring out all of the patterns they could go in and creating new shapes that the logs could make. I’ve never really associated that with math, but now that I think about, it’s definitely a way to experiment with geometry.
Fibonacci Spirals
One of my favorite math memories is learning about the Fibonacci sequence, drawing the spiral and then learning about how the spiral appears in so many different ways in nature was so cool to me. It was the first time I saw how math might be useful and applicable to the outside world.
Women in STEM
During elementary school, it seemed as though I was the only girl in my class who was really interested in math and really excelled at it. When we would go over tests, if you had done well on them, you could sit on the rug and play board games. I remember I was consistently the only girl who got to sit on the rug when we were reviewing our math tests. Additionally in fourth and fifth grade, there was a neighborhood math club and I was the only member who was a girl. I don’t think the lack of girls being involved in math ever deterred me from loving math, rather it motivated me to show the boys in my class that I could do just as well as them.
Magic Square
When I was in elementary school, I learned the formula for how to solve the magic square (defined as a square array of numbers where the sums of the numbers in each row, column, and main diagonals are the same). I was passionate about filling in blanks in the square and found math to be amazing at that time.
Packing the Car
Whenever my family would travel to visit family for the holidays I would always love helping my dad pack the car. I thought it was so neat rearranging the same items in different ways to take up the least amount of space and to have easy access to certain items throughout the duration of the trip. It was like a big sized puzzle!
Math and Candy
When I was younger, I used to ask my mom and dad to do math problems with me in the car. They were very simple problems but they always involved candy or some sort of food I liked. It was one of my first introductions to math; even though it was small, it made math fun.
Plots and Pictures
I usually use plots or pictures to help me understand math problem. After understanding, it’s easier to remember. Also, my high school teacher usually apply the definition to our life to help us understand and remember.
16777216
When I was really young my friend and I decided to add 1+1=2, then 2+2=4, then 4+4=8, etc. (power of 2). We were still at the skill level of addition though, so it took us a while. When we got to 16777216 (2^24), we had to go to lunch so we memorized the number so that when we got back we could continue where we left off. However, we never continued, but the number was still stuck in our heads and it became our favorite number to this day.
Bread and Fractions
I remember in elementary school we were starting a fractions unit and my class didn’t really grasp the concept right away. Our teacher enjoyed baking, so the following day she brought in her bread machine and helped us learn about fractions using some flower while she did a demo on how she makes bread. After recess, we came back to class and she helped us make our own butter and we enjoyed a snack!
Three is the Magic Number
I remember in elementary school watching the School House Rock video “Three is the Magic Number” and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. After watching this three became my favorite number and I started wanting to learn how to multiply by 3 and other numbers and had so much fun singing the song in my head.
Counting Down Days
When I was younger, I used to love counting down the days left until exciting events such as family vacations and holidays. Sometimes the amount of days felt overwhelming, so I would to divide the days up. For example, if something was 15 days away, I would break it up into 5 sets of 3 days. When I think about how 3 days is not a long period of time, having to wait just 5 sets of these short time periods became a lot less overwhelming.
Lattice Method
One of my elementary school teachers taught us how to multiply any two numbers using the lattice method. I remember thinking it was so cool because it always worked, even when multiplying numbers with four or five digits! I haven’t met many people who have used the lattice method, but it is still one of my favorites (albeit simple) mathematical “tricks”.
Soccer
I played soccer for the majority of my childhood and adolescence, and there were always patterns in terms of the spatial arrangement of players on the field. We would arrange ourselves, consciously at first but eventually subconsciously, into triangles and consider what angles would result in successfully making an accurate pass. Triangles were key to community and connection on the field!
