General – Page 12 – MathCityMap

Article on MathCityMap in Stuttgart’s Newpaper

Already in the last week, we reported on the opening of the MATHE.ENTDECKER trails around Stuttgart’s stock exchange. We are happy that the event was also reported in the Stuttgarter Zeitung at the 20.04.2018 and would like to share this article with you: High school students on the math path School students use a smartphone […]

Already in the last week, we reported on the opening of the MATHE.ENTDECKER trails around Stuttgart’s stock exchange. We are happy that the event was also reported in the Stuttgarter Zeitung at the 20.04.2018 and would like to share this article with you:

High school students on the math path

School students use a smartphone and corresponding app to solve practical tasks. Uli Meyer

Many people are wrong being confronted with the question of how big a person would be with a head the size of the sculpture of the thinker. Five meters? Or six? 24 students of Johann Philipp Palm School cannot rely on their feeling or a vague estimate. They have to calculate an exact result. The 11th graders of the Schorndorfer Wirtschaftsgymnasium start with measuring tape and calculator and begin their mathematical calculations. Incidentally, the human would be just over ten meters tall, which the students calculate with help of the app. Managing Director of Stuttgart’s stock exchange, Oliver Hans, and Matthias Ludwig and Simone Jablonski from the Goethe University Frankfurt watch the happenings, because the aspiring high school students are the first to complete the so-called math discovery trail. Around the stock exchange, Ludwig and Jablonski and their staff of the Institute for Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Science have created four such trails. They vary in difficulty and challenge different ages, like the steel wheel and 14 other tricky tasks. “The Math Trail idea is already old and was developed in 1984 in Australia. Our new approach is that we combine it with an app for smartphones, “says Ludwig about the new offer for schools, but also for the very private, individual use.

Together with Stiftung Rechnen, where Stuttgart’s stock exchange is a founding member, Ludwig’s institute has developed the MathCityMap platform. This website is translated in eleven languages, because it has become an international project with partners in several countries. “Worldwide, we have 600 trails with around 3000 individual tasks in the system,” says Ludwig. One encounters it “through creativity and through the world with eyes open”. A circumstance that is also important to Oliver Hans: “Mathematics surrounds us permanently in our daily lives.” Stiftung Rechen would like to interest people in mathematics, to reduce fear of contact and to convey joy in dealing with numbers. “Arithmetic is a cultural technique as well as reading”, Hans and Ludwig agree. Not all students were enthusiastic when they completed Stuttgart’s first math discovery trail. But for many, this practical application of mathematical tasks seems more interesting than a math lesson. Their teacher, Thomas Blum, watches his students with a smile on their faces as they study the steel wheel: “They must work out principles as to how they can come to a solution.” The learning effect is as great as the fun.

MathCityMap can be downloaded for free in App Stores.

MoMaTrE project in Portugal

The MathCityMap team thanks our MoMaTrE partners from Portugal for a special outdoor event with MCM. Read their impressions in the following article by Amélia Caldeira and Ana Moura: In the center of Matosinhos, a city in Porto’s metropolitan area, in Portugal, the mathematics was breathed with the event “Matemática vai ao Jardim” (Math goes […]

The MathCityMap team thanks our MoMaTrE partners from Portugal for a special outdoor event with MCM. Read their impressions in the following article by Amélia Caldeira and Ana Moura:

In the center of Matosinhos, a city in Porto’s metropolitan area, in Portugal, the mathematics was breathed with the event “Matemática vai ao Jardim” (Math goes to the Garden) on March 23rd. This event aims to celebrate mathematics and its relevance in everyday life, and in the progress of society. The main idea of this celebration was to use the students’ mathematical skills in the real world.

In a fun and innovative way, 170 students from Augusto Gomes Secondary School, equipped with a smartphone and the MathCityMap app (MCM app), answered several mathematical challenges, having as a backdrop the Garden Basílio Teles, in Matosinhos, and all its surroundings.

It was a competition between teams of three or four students. All of them benefited from an outdoor activity: they left the school building, walked around and explorde the center of Matosinhos.

Using their mathematical knowledge, they solved the proposed tasks. All the tasks were in accordance with the knowledge level in which the team was in. Three math trails, with five tasks each, were designed: a route for 7th and 8th grade students, a route for 9th grade students, and another route for students from the 10th to the 12th grades.

Through the MCM app, students went on an outdoor walk along a route and solved math problems that were contextualized with the surrounding environment. The students passed through special places in Matosinhos, where math can be experienced in everyday situations. For example, a swing to calculate angles measures, lake bridge to calculate areas, garden benches to apply combinatorial calculus,…

The map with the location of the fifteen tasks is showed in figure 1:

Fig.1 – location of the fifteen tasks

In the end, the best team was selected from each of the three routes. The criteria for choosing the best team was the highest number of correct answers. In case of equality, the team that answered in the minimum time.

Both students and teachers of Augusto Gomes enjoyed the event “Matemática vai ao Jardim”.

Fig.2 – students measure the circumference of a sphere

You can find a briefly video-report here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr9XwMFfUnc&feature=youtu.be).

ISEP/P.Porto team who designed and invigorated the event:

Amélia Caldeira, Ana Moura, Ana Júlia Viamonte, Isabel Figueiredo, Helena Brás, Alexandra Gavina and Alzira Faria.

Trails around Stuttgart’s Exchange

MATHE.ENDTECKER (Math Explorer) is a program funded by Stiftung Rechnen in cooperation with Goethe University. MathCityMap gives the technical, didactical and pedagogic basis for this special program. Through the opening of these trails at Stuttgart’s exchange through Patrick Dewayne (Ambassador of Stiftung Rechnen), Dr. Oliver Hans (head of Stuttgart’s exchange) and Prof. Dr. Matthias Ludwig […]

MATHE.ENDTECKER (Math Explorer) is a program funded by Stiftung Rechnen in cooperation with Goethe University. MathCityMap gives the technical, didactical and pedagogic basis for this special program.

Through the opening of these trails at Stuttgart’s exchange through Patrick Dewayne (Ambassador of Stiftung Rechnen), Dr. Oliver Hans (head of Stuttgart’s exchange) and Prof. Dr. Matthias Ludwig (Goethe University, working group MATIS I), MCM reached a new level in terms of dissemination and cooperation with Stiftung Rechnen and further partners.

Dr. Oliver Hans, Prof. Dr. Matthias Ludwig, Patrick Dewayne, (c) Philipp Tonn

On Thursday, 12.04., students from 11. grade of a commericial high school in Schorndorf were able to test one of the four trails. The feedback was positive, especially the connection of being outside, acting independently, doing mathematics and using mobile devices was mentioned. It is planned to created further trails in Schorndorf with help of MathCityMap.

Students of Johann-Philipp-Palm school in Schorndorf

The MCM team from Frankfurt is looking forward for further tasks.

Ceremonial cutting off the tape in front of the sculpture “thinker” close to Stuttgart’s exchange. From left to right:Patrick Dewayne, Prof. Dr. Matthias Ludwig, Oliver Hans. Students of Johann-Philipp-Palm school Schorndorf.

MCM in Munich

As part of the 109. MNU Bundeskongress, we were able to use and present MCM in the Bavarian capital city. Iwan Gurjanow and Simone Jablonski presented the MathCityMap idea in a workshop, which asked the teachers to test and create MCM tasks. The trail around TU Munich-Garching can be found here. In Munich’s city center […]

As part of the 109. MNU Bundeskongress, we were able to use and present MCM in the Bavarian capital city.

Iwan Gurjanow and Simone Jablonski presented the MathCityMap idea in a workshop, which asked the teachers to test and create MCM tasks. The trail around TU Munich-Garching can be found here.

In Munich’s city center numerous tasks could be created as well. Through a wide range of historical buildings and interesting objects, we can create a trail that involves a variety of tasks. It will be available in our portal soon.

Special thanks to the organisators and the participants for their active cooperation and constructive talks. We are sure that the MCM team will come back to Munich!

MCM International Events

Through the cooperation project MoMaTrE (Mobile Math Trails in Europe – www.momatre.eu), MathCityMap could be presented on an international level in various ways. On 23.03., about 170 students at the age of 12-18 years took part in the activity “Mathematics goes to the Garden” which was organized by the MoMaTrE partners in Portugal and involved […]

Through the cooperation project MoMaTrE (Mobile Math Trails in Europe – www.momatre.eu), MathCityMap could be presented on an international level in various ways.

On 23.03., about 170 students at the age of 12-18 years took part in the activity “Mathematics goes to the Garden” which was organized by the MoMaTrE partners in Portugal and involved diverse MathCityMap tasks.

Special thanks to Amélia Caldeira for the photo, which shows a group while measuring. Further impressions can be found on our Twitter Account (@mathcitymap).

Also in Lyon, France, MathCityMap could be presented successfully at the beginning of the week as part of the congress Math en Jeans. Here a special thanks to Christian Mercat. The involved trail, which can be seen in the picture, can be found here.

The new design of the app also reached the website and the prints. Stay up to date and download the new MCM flyer (available in German) here.

MCM in Erfurt

Doing outdoor mathmatics with MathCityMap works in any weather. Iwan Gurjanow and Matthias Ludwig visited the cathedral city Erfurt on Wednesday 21.03. and Thursday 22.03. On the 24th Days of the maths and science lessens of the ThiLLM, we were able to present MathCityMap. While the preparations on Wednesday took place in cold but sunny […]

Doing outdoor mathmatics with MathCityMap works in any weather. Iwan Gurjanow and Matthias Ludwig visited the cathedral city Erfurt on Wednesday 21.03. and Thursday 22.03. On the 24th Days of the maths and science lessens of the ThiLLM, we were able to present MathCityMap. While the preparations on Wednesday took place in cold but sunny weather, there were some brave teachers who ignored the sleet and solved MCM tasks at the campus of the University of Erfurt and later created own MCM tasks in the portal. Of course, in such a beautiful city, we were also searching for tasks in the city center. The finished trail in Erfurt’s old town will be presented here in the next few days.

Happy Pi Day

Friends of special dates and numbers might already have noted it in their calendar: Today is Pi Day. Based on the American spelling of today’s date (3/14) and the beginning of the number Pi with its first two decimals, the 14th March is perfect to celebrate Pi. Therefore, today everything at MCM revolves around the […]

Friends of special dates and numbers might already have noted it in their calendar: Today is Pi Day. Based on the American spelling of today’s date (3/14) and the beginning of the number Pi with its first two decimals, the 14th March is perfect to celebrate Pi. Therefore, today everything at MCM revolves around the circle and we would like to celebrate this with the help of one of our various tasks on the topic of the circle.

Task: Paving stones in a circle (Task number: 2007)

How many paving stones are in the red marked area?

Despite various approaches, the number Pi is central while solving the problem. On the one hand, it is possible to determine the number of paving stones in a certain area (for example one square meter) and to project them to the total area. The task can be solved particularly clever by considering a paving stone as a unit and expressing the radius of the circle by the number of stones.

This is just as one example of many tasks in which the number Pi is relevant in everyday life and for the math trail idea (e.g. traffic signs, advertising pillars, trees). In this sense: Happy Pi day!

By the way: the task is part of a trail around the Stuttgart’s stock exchange. They were created by our team and will be officially opened in April.

Welcome Greece!

Thanks to Georgios Fesakis, who educates maths teachers at Aegean University of Rhodos, MCM is now available in Greek. We wish all Greek users and students a lot of fun during creating and solving tasks in the Aegean sun. By the way: at Easter, the MCM team will visit Greece and help to take the […]

Thanks to Georgios Fesakis, who educates maths teachers at Aegean University of Rhodos, MCM is now available in Greek. We wish all Greek users and students a lot of fun during creating and solving tasks in the Aegean sun. By the way: at Easter, the MCM team will visit Greece and help to take the first steps.

MCM scores at GDMV conference in Paderborn

As part of the joint meeting of GDM and DMV in Paderborn from 05.03. – 09.03.2018, MathCityMap was presented in various ways. First of all, on 06.03. Matthias Ludwig spoke on the Erasmus + project MoMaTrE (Mobile Math Trails in Europe), in which the cooperation partners and goals were presented on an international level. On […]

As part of the joint meeting of GDM and DMV in Paderborn from 05.03. – 09.03.2018, MathCityMap was presented in various ways. First of all, on 06.03. Matthias Ludwig spoke on the Erasmus + project MoMaTrE (Mobile Math Trails in Europe), in which the cooperation partners and goals were presented on an international level. On 08.03., Iwan Gurjanow presented his research results in the field of motivation and gamification (points and leaderboard) while running a math trail. In addition, Joerg Zender considered the Math Trail idea from the point of view of performance, which led to interesting discussions on 09.03.

A special highlight for the entire team is the prize which Daniel Birnbaum and Matthias Ludwig won at the poster session. On the poster, the future-oriented technology Augmented Reality was presented, as well as first ideas to use it in school and MCM.

During the entire conference, the participants had the opportunity to test a trail in the city center of Paderborn. Of course, we took the chance and ran the trail from the perspective of the task solver with lots of fun and ambition.

At this point, we want to thank Max Hoffmann and the students of the Pelizaeus-Gymnasium for creating the tasks! Likewise, we would like to thank all interested in the project for the exciting questions and discussions.

Category: General