Math Activities

 I really enjoyed the ethnomathematics activities that we did yesterday. All the activities highlighted how maths is present and rooted in the many various cultures presented around the world. There were games and activities from as early as the middle ages and all the way back to before the Romans in the 8th century BCE. In my opinion, I think this is an attest to how maths can be considered a present aspect of all of human history. It is something we tend to not think about but doing the maths activities made me think about that even more. In many cases,such as the game Mancala. Looking at it at first glance I would not expect it to be considered a game that is rooted with mathematics. It was interesting to learn that the game was created in 1400 BCE and was intended to symbolise the different stages of agriculture. I think what they stated in their presentation was true to what we can consider in relation to maths being that it can teach students the importance of maths and how embedded it is in human culture. It relates to the idea of ethnomathematics and what we have been learning well. Highlighting one of the themes in the course being that maths is presented in most aspects of life around us. We can now explore the world of ethnomathematics through the learning of different cultures!

In relation to my future teaching education, I think this activity of maths games will prove to be beneficial. I think games like Mancala or the one about probability can help me and other concurrent education students in their future teaching careers. I think today in schools, maths is seen as distasteful and usually has a negative connotation surrounding it. I think after taking this class and doing the activities that it is apparent that maths is more fluid than structure to what I believed. It is an attest to how fluid it is in the sense of how many different forms of teaching and learning it can take. We have seen this with Mayan Calendars, all the way to the games such as Mancala. Maths can be considered a picture into the various cultures that encompass the world.