Slides and Reflection

 

The Math History project taught me a lot about the connections to history and how to incorporate it into mathematics today. Before deciding on Shadow reckoning, I perused through various topics. I decided on shadow reckoning because of its clear and straightforward application to students. Given that the lower level maths (Math 9) are taught in every school and are often given to new teachers and the concept involved in shadow reckoning is related to similar triangles, I figured it would be a good topic to discuss.

I first read an article that talked about the thinking of Thales a Greek Mathematician who travelled across the world. He wanted to find the height of pyramids and it’s intriguing how he used his height and measured the distance using pacing. I question how he was able to get the distance of his shadow as he would need some assistance to find the distance.

I think there’s a great lesson here that math is not some abstract concept and can be applied into daily life with a little creativity. I found it particularly interesting how Thales incorporated body movement to actually solve the math problem. Therefore, when creating the activity I wanted to ensure students would have the opportunity to do the same so my activity allows students to collaborate and measure the length of shadows but using modern measurements. (my google slides is left in the permalink section)

Google slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BQ1kCsDDbX6GTFQntYRvd8EMGFA3HmrzN1hfKB5iIr0/edit#slide=id.g316f9d3d293_0_43


Comments

  1. Susan GerofskyNovember 30, 2024 at 1:23 PM

    Thanks for a good project and an interesting reflection, Zain. Your presentation was generally good, but I think the interactive activity for the class could have been improved by clearer instructions, and perhaps by trying it out (with friends outside the class?) several times before actually doing it with the class. I think that some people were confused, and that would stop them from trying this with their own classes, unfortunately! Small details of the 'how to' (use a chair, or a metre stick, or...?) and the understanding of the question (is the light coming from the streetlight, or from the sun? etc.) often make all the difference. I would also have liked to hear more details about how the daily prayer times in Islamic societies are determined by shadows -- an interesting thing to learn about! Overall, I think you did a good job finding, researching and presenting an interesting historical topic, and your take-away reflections are thoughtful and interesting.

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