Egypt Math

One of the best practices for gifted education is to integrate other subjects into our unit of study. As we studied the social studies topic Egypt, we also studied science, art, reading, writing, technology, archaeology, and even math.

Here are some of the ways math was included.

Counting with Egyptian numbers:

We read this book as an introduction to Egyptian numbers and continued to discover how smart and how innovative the Egyptians were. 

We looked at a primary source and saw Egypt numbers on a cattle count used for determining taxes.

We then did math using these numbers. 

Geometry:

We read a fun book and then made pyramids, along with other 2D and 3D shapes, using toothpicks and marshmallows.

Symmetry:

We did some simple symmetry drawing and then took on this complicated task!

Egyptian Measuring:

Ancient Egyptians used  thumbs, palms, and cubits to measure things and so did we. We measured our height, a book, our desks and more. It was literally a fingers-on, hands-on, arms-on experience. 

Circumference:

First of all, we talked about how we thought Eratosthenes, a Greek man who lived in Egypt, could measure the earth without modern ways of measuring (no cars, no satellites, no computers.)

Here are some of our ideas:

• He used a globe.
• He guessed. 
• He jumped up and measured.
• He asked someone on the other side of the Earth.
• He used knowledge of math and read a book. He used math to calculate and measure.
• He sailed around the world. 

We then estimated/guessed the circumference.  Their answers reminded me that these bright kids are just 6, 7, and 8 years old! :) 

• 1000 miles
• 1,000,000,000 miles
• 2,000,000 miles
• 751 miles
• 55,000,000 miles
• 9,099 light years
• 3,000,200 miles
• infinity minus 1 miles
• 35,000 miles
• 25,000 miles

Ding, ding, ding. Ms. Nicole, our para-educator, was closest. We asked Siri and she informed us that the circumference is 24,662 miles. Ms. Nicole was 338 miles off. Eratosthenes was only 200 miles off!!

Wanna find out how Eratosthenes did it? Ask Siri or listen to the book here!

Here's a clue. 

The Sieve of Eratosthenes: Finding prime numbers

We used this ancient algorithm for finding all prime numbers up to 100. First we crossed off all the even numbers, then the multiples of 5, then the multiples of 3, and so on. Perfect for our study of multiplication. 

Seabury school strives to offer rich opportunities to meet the diverse needs of our gifted math students. Here's an interesting list of the characteristics of such students. As we played around with Egyptian Math, the first and second grade Navigators exhibited many of these. 

• display mathematical thinking and have a keen awareness for quantitative information in the world around them.
• think logically and symbolically about quantitative, spatial, and abstract relationships.
• perceive, visualize, and generalize numeric and non-numeric patterns and relationships.
• reason analytically, deductively, and inductively.
• reverse reasoning processes and switch methods in a flexible yet systematic manner.
• work, communicate, and justify mathematical concepts in creative and intuitive ways, both verbally and in writing.
• transfer learning to novel situations.
• formulate probing mathematical questions that extend or apply concepts.
• persist in their search for solutions to complex, "messy," or "ill-defined" tasks.
• organize information and data in a variety of ways and to disregard irrelevant data.
• grasp mathematical concepts and strategies quickly, with good retention, and to relate mathematical concepts within and across content areas and real-life situations.
• solve problems with multiple and/or alternative solutions.
• use mathematics with self-assurance.
• take risks with mathematical concepts and strategies.
• apply a more extensive and in-depth knowledge of a variety of major mathematical topics.
• apply estimation and mental computation strategies.