Schedule for: 18w2221 - Ted Lewis SNAP Math Fair Workshop 2018

Note: the Lecture rooms are available after 16:00.

Beverages and a small assortment of snacks are available in the lounge on a cash honour system.

A buffet breakfast is served daily between 7:00am and 9:00am in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building. Note that BIRS does not pay for meals for 2-day workshops.

A brief introduction to BIRS with important logistical information, technology instruction, and opportunity for participants to ask questions.

A SNAP Math Fair is a magical event where students, teachers, families, and community members gather together to celebrate problem solving. Various schools and classrooms organize Math Fairs in a variety of ways, we will explore how some schools have adapted the concept to their particular academic objectives.

The study and practice of mathematics is more than performing fast mental calculations and using formulas; creative critical thinking to solve problems is an underlining reason mathematics is learned. Teachers endeavour to frame the study of mathematics in every-day applications and the math fair activity is one such way to achieve this. During this session Ryan Nichols and Dolph Shaw will share their experience and knowledge of putting on a math fair by explaining its philosophy, by providing the steps to put on a fair, as well as giving both French and English resources for everyday use.

A buffet lunch is served daily between 11:30am and 1:30pm in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building. Note that BIRS does not pay for meals for 2-day workshops.

Meet in foyer of TCPL to participate in the BIRS group photo. The photograph will be taken outdoors, so dress appropriately for the weather. Please don't be late, or you might not be in the official group photo!

In this presentation, participants will solve (and discuss) three math fair puzzles involving elementary mathematics. When stripped of their contexts, the three puzzles have identical math tasks: in each case, we are asked to obtain a target number by repeatedly adding and subtracting two other numbers. However, the contexts of the puzzles force us to carry out this task in very different ways. The different approaches are intimately related to the basic rules that children have to learn about addition and subtraction.

In this session we discuss how math fair projects can be modified to support struggling students or provide enrichment for stronger students.

In any language we make up definitions to introduce new words, a new word can then interact with the rest of the language. The language of mathematics is built in the same way, by making up definitions and then investigating the consequences. A well known idea says that two negative numbers multiply to give a positive number, is this something mathematicians have made up or is it a consequence?

A good lead into puzzles is making the cross curricular numeracy connection through literature.

A buffet dinner is served daily between 5:30pm and 7:30pm in the Vistas Dining Room, the top floor of the Sally Borden Building. Note that BIRS does not pay for meals for 2-day workshops.

2-day workshop participants are welcome to use BIRS facilities (Corbett Hall Lounge, TCPL, Reading Room) until 15:00 on Sunday, although participants are still required to checkout of the guest rooms by 12 noon. There is no coffee break service on Sunday afternoon, but self-serve coffee and tea are always available in the 2nd floor lounge, Corbett Hall.