Math Fan | Inspiring Curiosity in Math
Can you think of a better way
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to spread the love of math,
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to connect community and math,
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to talk about rich history and culture of math,
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to share the latest news and resources,
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to collaborate, and
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to be creative!
Every school can have a math festival, even a math week! Math has so many interesting aspects so an event at any scale can be planned ahead. And students do actually love being a part of such an event. Here are some ideas to celebrate math.
MATH FEST & MATH WEEK
DATE AND VENUE
The most convinient date for an event is always the one which does not have a conflict with the other ongoing events of your school or community.Especially if you are planning to usethe cafeteria, MPR or the PE rooms. But if you have a freedom to choose, the best option can be having a parallel event to the International Day of Math which is the Pi Day: 14th of March.
You may also want to check the math and science calender for the other important dates like Ada Lovelace birthday or international women in math day and etc..
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF MATHEMATICS
UNESCO proclaimed March 14 as the International Day of Mathematics on November 26, 2019.
The International Day of Mathematics (IDM) is a worldwide celebration. Each year on March 14, all countries will be invited to participate through activities for both students and the general public in schools, museums, libraries, and other spaces.
You can check out the website of IDM to get the detailed information on Math Day and share your math day celebrations by using the hashtag #idm314
STATIONS
There are many interesting activities you can plan with the students. Here are some ideas;
You can check the Math & Art and Math Club pages for more activities
PUZZLES AND GAMES
Students enjoy most when they challenge each other on puzzles and games. There are endless possibilities to create different puzzles. You can create paper and pencil puzzles as well as digital ones. Here are some ideas. Please check the online games and puzzles page for more ideas.
If you have an extra budget, you can purchase some really good games and puzzles. Please check the games page for more.
Mathedideas is a great resource for all math teachers.
Random Acts of Maths (RAMs) are Mathematical problems, puzzles, teasers, provocations, jokes, quotes, etc., to be offered or given to students (outside of lessons), their families, school visitors, et al., for no other reason than to make people mathier.
Another great discovery for all math teachers is definitely M+A+T+H=Love blog
Sarah Carter the creator of the blog has so many paper and pencil puzzles you can use at different stations of the mathfest.
EXHIBITIONS
You may create different exhibitions according to the theme you choose.
Exhibition Project Ideas:
Women Mathematicians, Tessellations, Fractals, 3D Solids, Escher's mathematical wonders, origami, Pi-words Wall Mathematical Timeline... When students see their work being displayed as a part of the exhibition, their sense of belonging improves, and they take ownership of the whole event.
POSTERS, ADS, DECORATIONS, THEME, SONG, MOVIE, GIFT BAGS
To announce the upcoming math event, designing competitions for posters, decorations, songs even short clips can motivate students even more for the event. Using Canva is one of the easiest ways of creating such posters.
You can use paper puzzles and 3d printed mathematical games or gadgets to create gift bags.
The Introductory video Math Festival 2019
The Teaser of Math Week'19 Koc School, Turkey