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Your Maths Lab: Introduction |
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Hands-On Maths in the Twenty-first Century |
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The Magic Mathworks Travelling Circus Twentieth Anniversary Review Our touring maths lab, The Magic Mathworks Travelling Circus, has been on the road since July 1989. Our mission is to re-enthuse teachers about the possibilities work with the hands provides for learning mathematics. Teachers now use digital technology to deliver materials in ways not even envisaged in 1989. In our ideal maths lab we see children moving easily between the real and the virtual; between physical, 3-dimensional objects and their 2-dimensional representations on a computer screen, interactive whiteboard, graphics tablet or whatever. To that end we created the ‘Virtual Circus’, a bank of interactivities on our website through which children can extend work done in the real Circus. However, we regard these experiences as secondary to what the children do in the original, multisensory environment. The object of this review is to find out how, if at all, our school visits have influenced the use of apparatus and manipulatives in your mathematics classroom. Be reassured that we would read, “I never need anything more than squared and isometric dotty paper” with respect: the simple and the versatile are going to be the key resources of any maths lab. If you write, “I sometimes use a mathematical balance”, we shall be pleasantly surprised. If you write, “We find NRICH’s ‘geoboard’ environment so realistic we don’t use the physical form”, it will give us considerable pause for thought: in a small space and a short time only the fittest will survive. Your comments may make specific reference to The Magic Mathworks, to another provider – perhaps one of those listed in the section ‘Hands-on maths links’ on our website – or to none at all. In all events we hope to build up a picture of the resources used in a representative U.K. mathematics classroom at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. We would be grateful if you would write your remarks in the review form. To every contributor:
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