youcubed has six new tasks available on their website to support your work inspiring mathematical curiosity, creativity, and joy in your classrooms. These tasks are designed to spark discussion, promote multiple strategies, and help students build confidence as creative mathematician.
The Week of Inspirational Math(s) (WIM) are free lessons and videos about math and mindset designed to inspire students. They are ideal for the first week of school, but they can be used anytime. On the youcubed website, you can create your own WIM where you can add videos and tasks for each day.
The new tasks include...
Ish Numbers (Grades: K-12)
This task helps students develop strategies for ishing quantities of objects in images that are too great to count of calculate exact values. The task starts with a whole class discussion on different images and student strategies. Then, students take their own photos of objects to share with the class to continue developing their methods for ishing quantities of unknown numbers of objects.
How Many Squares? (Grades: 3-12)
In this task students explore different visual puzzles to answer the question, "How many squares?" Students develop convincing arguments about the number of squares they see in each puzzle. Through the exploration of these puzzles and the justification of their solutions, students apply foundational understanding of area and multiplication.
This activity develops spatial reasoning, perseverance, and the ability to look and count squares that don’t all have to be congruent. This task also shares a pedagogical strategy to help develop students’ reasoning—as they invite students to be skeptical of each other’s mathematical ideas, and ask for proof!
Dice Windows
By creating images using dice arranged in squares, students will enjoy exploring the algebraic reasoning and number patterns inside these Dice Windows. Each image has a border of dice and a square window of dice in the center. As students study how the arrangements grow by examining the different "windows," they are encouraged to notice and describe patterns, make predictions, and reason about the number patterns.
There are four versions of this task (for Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-college), so you can choose the level of complexity that best fits your students. From counting and grouping in the early grades to exploring algebraic structure and generalization in the upper grades, Dice Windows provides a rich opportunity for learners of all ages to see mathematics as creative while building number sense and thinking algebraically.
Visit youcubed's WIM pageto access these new tasks and many more.