Simone Jablonski – Page 5

Task of the Week: Flowerpot

In case you search in our MathCityMap portal, you might notice that flowerpots enable various geometric tasks. Solely through the high frequency and the different shapes (cylinder, prismn with hexagonal area, etc.), the question how many liters of soil fit into the flowerpot, can be realised. In today’s Task of the Week, the flowerpot has […]

In case you search in our MathCityMap portal, you might notice that flowerpots enable various geometric tasks. Solely through the high frequency and the different shapes (cylinder, prismn with hexagonal area, etc.), the question how many liters of soil fit into the flowerpot, can be realised. In today’s Task of the Week, the flowerpot has the shape of a truncated cone.

Task: Flowerpot (Task number: 1219)

How many liters soil fit into the flowerpot, when it is filled until the top?

The formula for the volume of a truncated cone might not be known by all students. Therefore, they need strategies in order to solve the task, e.g. by means of the difference of a big and a small come. Further challenges are the determination of the small radius with help of the circumference and the consideration of the edge/bottom, which is obviously not filled with soil.

It’s time to go outside!

On 24.05.2018, Martin Lipinski and Simone Jablonski presented the MathCityMap system und project during a teacher training at Campus Westend at Goethe University in Frankfurt. The event’s title “It’s time to go outside” was taken literally, so that the participants were able to test “outdoor mathematics” with help of the app. The trail showed not […]

On 24.05.2018, Martin Lipinski and Simone Jablonski presented the MathCityMap system und project during a teacher training at Campus Westend at Goethe University in Frankfurt. The event’s title “It’s time to go outside” was taken literally, so that the participants were able to test “outdoor mathematics” with help of the app.

The trail showed not only the different mathematic opportunities with MathCityMap, but also led through interesting objects on the campus, such as the Body of Knowledge or Adorno’s memorial.

The tasks included combinatorics, cryptographic and geometric questions, as well as GPS tasks. For example, it was asked to find the point which has the same distance to each of the marked points. On the paper, it is quite easy to construate the circumcenter of the triangle, but in reality, it is a special challenge.

The feedback made clear: The participants had a lot of fun while solving the tasks and own ideas how to use MCM with their students. We are looking forward to first reports!

Task of the Week: Combinatorics

On Monday, May 14th, 45 primary students, who are interested in math and take part in an enrichment program, were able to discover the Campus Westend of Goethe University. In the beginning, the weather was thundery, nevertheless the motivated students were able to go on a math trail with their parents and university students. The […]

On Monday, May 14th, 45 primary students, who are interested in math and take part in an enrichment program, were able to discover the Campus Westend of Goethe University. In the beginning, the weather was thundery, nevertheless the motivated students were able to go on a math trail with their parents and university students. The trail was a combination of combinatory puzzles and measuring tasks which were solved by the participants in cooperation.

Task: Connected Trees (Task Number: 3485)

How many ropes are needed to connect every tree with all the other trees?

The students had a lot of fun while solving the problems. Especially while solving the tree task, they were able to build on prior knowledge from the enrichment program. Here, a similar task with shaking hands was questioned. The solution that the first of the 15 trees is connected with 14, the second with 13 and so on led quickly to the right solution.

Also the questions on the number of possibilities for 6 persons to take a seat, and the number of possiblities to go upstairs a stair with single, double and triple steps could be solved by the children through calculation and testing.

A special highlight was a task whose correct answer opened the lock to a treasure chest with small surprises in it.

MCM Web Portal Update – Toolbar

After improving the task and trail details in our last portal update, this update focuses on the toolbar. The main aim of these updates is to get MathCityMap on a well established technical level and to make sure that a higher amount of data do not affect the functionality. Overview of all Changes: Data in […]

After improving the task and trail details in our last portal update, this update focuses on the toolbar. The main aim of these updates is to get MathCityMap on a well established technical level and to make sure that a higher amount of data do not affect the functionality.

Overview of all Changes:

Data in the lists are loaded asychronously
Revision of the working groups
Possibility to cancel content from the review process
Revision of the searching function
Minor bug fixing

Working Groups

In the list “My Tasks” and “My Routes”, you can see the items which are shared within a group, mixed with your own contents. The group items are marked with a coloured circle and the initials of the author.
Shared content cannot be shared, published or deleted by other group members.
If you share a trail with a group, automatically all tasks from the trail are shared as well.
The working group list shows further information, e.g. number of members and number of shared contents.
In the details of the working group, you can change the colour of the group (randomly chosen out of 10 fixed colours) and the shared tasks and trails are listed.

Review Process

After asking for publication of a content, you can cancel the review process by clicking the button “Cancel Publication”. This can be helpful in case you asked for publication by mistake.

Search Function

The search function opens a new tab with three entries:
Routes – Here are trails listed that can be found via search
Tasks – Here are tasks listed that can be found via search
New Search – Opens a search box (send via ENTER or click on the magnifier)
With the button Search Settings, one further has the opportunity to configurate the search, e.g. the time slot of the task creation or an interval for the grades. Apart from this, one can choose in which fields contents should be searched.

Minor Bug Fixing

Through various actions, the portal can come into different states. Earlier, it was not systematic enough so that some actions led to error states. The states are now managed standardized and systematically. This should help to avoid and easily regulate errors.
Opening tasks and trails integrates so called GET parameters into the address bar, e.g. to send a specific trail via link (Attention: The content must be visible for the receiver). With the new update, it is further noted in which sub tab the portal is during the starting process.
The loading bar was changed into a loading circle with a message on the current process. Further, it is integrated more consitently. This should show the user what happens in the background.
Task, Box: Sample Solution: The bug that deleted the picture of the sample solution while changing the text of the sample solution was fixed.
Picture Upload: The bug that hindered the process of uploading a picture with the same filename was fixed.

Task of the Week: Archway

Created during a teacher training in Erfurt, today’s Task of the Week fokuses on the topic Archway. The topic allows different questions and problems. Some weeks ago, we already presented an archway task on the weight of an archway’s stones. Today, the maximal height of an archway is focused. Task: Archway (Task Number: 3090) Determine […]

Created during a teacher training in Erfurt, today’s Task of the Week fokuses on the topic Archway. The topic allows different questions and problems. Some weeks ago, we already presented an archway task on the weight of an archway’s stones. Today, the maximal height of an archway is focused.

Task: Archway (Task Number: 3090)

Determine the maximal height of the archway at the Krämerbrücke. Give the result in meters with two decimals.

The most elegant solution of this task is to divide the archway into a rectangle and a semi-circle.

With this hint, it is necessary to determine the point at which the semi-circle begins and the rectangle ends. With the height of the rectangle and the radius of the semi-circle (best determined through the diameter), the height of the archway results. In case the topic circle should be highlighted even more, it is possible to ask for the circumference of the archway. Here, the relation of diameter and circumference is further focused.

Made in Taiwan

MathCityMap was part of the East Asian Conference On Mathematics Education 8 (EARCOME8) which took place in Taipeh, Taiwan. On Wednesday afternoon, about 30 participants were part of a “Special Sharing Group”, in which interested mathematics educators could make first experiences with MCM. After a typical Asian restraint in the beginning and the first cooperative […]

MathCityMap was part of the East Asian Conference On Mathematics Education 8 (EARCOME8) which took place in Taipeh, Taiwan.

On Wednesday afternoon, about 30 participants were part of a “Special Sharing Group”, in which interested mathematics educators could make first experiences with MCM. After a typical Asian restraint in the beginning and the first cooperative solved tasks, the participants were fascinated and measured, counted and calculated diligently.

You can find the trail here.

As part of the conference, there were two further presentations given by Hanna Gärtner and Joerg Zender from Goethe University, both very successful. Joerg Zender presented the findings on the two annual surveys among MCM users.

Generic Tasks: Volume I

In a further article on our category Generic Tasks, we want to present you determinations of volume and mass. The focus will be on the bodies Cuboid and Cylinder. Further bodies will follow in future articles. We start with these forms as they occur in the environment very often and can be realised very quickly […]

In a further article on our category Generic Tasks, we want to present you determinations of volume and mass. The focus will be on the bodies Cuboid and Cylinder. Further bodies will follow in future articles. We start with these forms as they occur in the environment very often and can be realised very quickly with our Task Wizard.

Objects that can be described with help of cuboids are for example concrete blocks or stones. Here, the difficulty varies according the unevennesses of the object, which can be balanced through averadged values. With benches, the difficulty can be increased as well, as they have to be described through different cuboids.

Cylinders are very suitbale to determine the volume of a tree trunk. Furthermore, many fountains are circular and therefore a good basis for calcualtions with the cylinder.

Especially with stones and tree trunks, the question of the object’s weight seems adequate through a given density. The mathematical background, as well as popular densities can be found in the following document Generic Tasks Volume 1.

BILD rejoices in MathCityMap

Also in the regional edition of BILD Zeitung Stuttgart, MathCityMap and the opening of the MATHE.ENTDECKER trails around Stuttgart’s stock exchange were mentioned. In the category “What we rejoice in” it said: This makes learning fun. From now on, four new “Mathe.Entdecker Trails” exist around Stuttgart’s stock exchange. In the app MathCityMap, objects and places […]

Also in the regional edition of BILD Zeitung Stuttgart, MathCityMap and the opening of the MATHE.ENTDECKER trails around Stuttgart’s stock exchange were mentioned. In the category “What we rejoice in” it said:

This makes learning fun. From now on, four new “Mathe.Entdecker Trails” exist around Stuttgart’s stock exchange. In the app MathCityMap, objects and places become vivid math tasks.

We can only agree with this statement!

Generic Tasks: GPS tasks

Have you already tested our GPS tasks with help of the task wizard? They give you the opportunity to create interesting problems with the own position and the GPS signal of the smartphones. The following objects can be created at the moment: Line Segment AB without direction Line Segment AB with direction Equilateral Triangle ABC […]

Have you already tested our GPS tasks with help of the task wizard? They give you the opportunity to create interesting problems with the own position and the GPS signal of the smartphones.

The following objects can be created at the moment:

Line Segment AB without direction
Line Segment AB with direction
Equilateral Triangle ABC
Square ABCD
Equal distance to 2 points
Equal distance to 3 points
Linear function through 2 points

For the GPS task, an active GPS signal is needed. Further, the tasks should be created with distance to higher buildings in order to imporve the exactness. For creating, a big place or lawn is needed which allwos to walk a longer line or the asked object completely, e.g. in the example Walk a Line with Direction.

This task allows different solutions as the problem solver can choose starting and ending point. Solely the direction (north-south) and length (50m) are given. In contrast, the tasks on equal distance and linear function define points or a coordinate system which are presented by the smartphone.

MCM meets Girls’ Day

On 26.04.2018 the annual Girls’ Day took place. The science faculties of Goethe University participated as well and therefore, 40 students who are interested in maths were able to get to know and test MathCityMap at the Campus Riedberg. After a short introduction given by Nazanin Roushanaei and Simone Jablonski, the girls at ages 12 […]

On 26.04.2018 the annual Girls’ Day took place. The science faculties of Goethe University participated as well and therefore, 40 students who are interested in maths were able to get to know and test MathCityMap at the Campus Riedberg.

After a short introduction given by Nazanin Roushanaei and Simone Jablonski, the girls at ages 12 till 16 came together in small groups and started a mathematical “paper chase”. With sunny weather they solved tasks on slope, height of buildings and bodies. The girls had a lot of fun and motivation, so that one group was actually able to solve all tasks of a trail in the period of one hour.

During a final phase, the girls gave their feedback. A first impression already showed: thumbs up for the MathCityMap app. We thank all the participants and are already looking forward to the next Girls’ Day.

You can find the trails here:

Grade 5/6/7

Grade 8/9/10