The first assignment for 7A was looking at YouCube's Activity, "Number Visuals," from the 1st Inspirational Week of Math in 2015. The class was given the image below to look at and make as many observations as they could.
The class found all sorts of patterns and relationships between the shapes. Here are some of their findings:
- All the prime numbers are circles.
- Every 4th figure is a group of squares.
- All multiples of three are triangles
- The first row are building blocks for the rest of the chart.
- Starting at 6; when you go down 2 and left 2, you will arrive at a variant of the number.
- You can see the factor of a composite number in the shapes that make up the number.
As an extension, the class was charged with figuring out what the 40th figure would look like. The class shared their different ideas (see one student's work above) and they had to defend one of the choices.
Students are learning to support their ideas and answers with solid evidence and reasoning. This will be an ongoing work in progress, all year long.
