Numbers invade the city in My town in numbers

Title: My town in numbers

Educational stage: Compulsory Secondary Education

Subject: Maths / Geometry

How many litres of water can fit into the fountain of my city? What's the minimum surface required to sow half a kilo of carrots? Can I calculate the high of a building if I know the height of a pedestrian? Some of these questions have been dealt with by students aged 12 to 14 from schools in the Czech Republic, Romania and Holland, and they have answered them using a fun research process.

All this was done within a Maths project such as My town in numbers, a runner-up in the 12 to 15 age category for the European eTwinning Awards 2010. The three member teachers coordinated very well, planned and organised the tasks, and the results are outstanding: the number of documents provided is well balanced, the topics dealt with are homogeneous and the activities proposed are varied. Each school selected several exercises, the other two completed them and all three shared them. These exercises are in the context of the schools.

Photos, images and presentations have been used to work on mathematical concepts with a motivating attitude: length, area, volume, encrypted messages, scale, speed, etc. have appeared in the architecture, the orchard, the maps and the texts. A little more than an excuse to promote the social and cultural richness of all three countries. Would any student have noticed the huge dimensions of the Romanian parliament? Or the length of the Darkov bridge? Could he/she decipher this text: Ymnx nx sty inkknhzqy?

Students have not just completed mathematical tasks; they have also thought about their European partners and together they have chosen a logo for their identification, they have shared their tastes, they have designed Christmas cards and they have shown their classroom. And they have done all this by using a wide range of ICTs.

At this regard, aside from the use of TwinSpace tools, they have created a blog to ensure constant communication amongst teachers and a well-organised and illustrative website to publish activity results.

Students have dealt with Maths differently (guessing games, animations, puzzles, encrypted messages, games, etc.), they have learnt about the importance of collaborative work, they have improved their English skills and they have seen for themselves how ICTs have spread all over their work and their teachers' work.

Links:

Website

Blog

Public TwinSpace (former TwinSpace platform)