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!
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:
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.
After we opened the first MATHE.ENTDECKER (math explorer) trails at Stuttgart’s stock exchange at the 12th of April (read more here), we want to present you one of the included tasks. The object is the sculpture “Thinker”, a prominent symbol of Stuttgart.
Task: Sculpture “Thinker” (Task number: 2018)
Determine the height of a person with this head size. Give the result in meters.
An interesting question with forces the creativity of the students as the propotion of head size and body size might be unclear. The students can determine this proportion at their own bodies, at best with all group members and the mean. Afterwards, the head size of the sculpture is measured and related to former values. A previous estimation in comparison to the real height might be surprising.
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.
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.
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.
