Students are tasked to build a times table in just two steps. They have to learn to use absolute as well as relative addressing to do, and the Lab takes them through using them. We encourage students to work with just a row or a column rather than with the table as a whole because doing so makes it easier to see what is wrong or what does not follow the pattern. We believe students should learn to struggle to solve problems and that persistence, patience, and grit are important for all of us to have. We therefore do not want to tell students how to do something but rather to let them explore and try and keep at it until they get it. Spreadsheets with their openness and feedback provide a great opportunity for doing this in Labs like this. It is one of our favorites.
Tag: multiplication
Odd Times
How many of the products in a 12 by 12 times table are odd numbers? This is a question we rarely ask in paper-based math classrooms, yet it is an important and a very interesting question. We ask students to explore it, learning to Show and Hide rows and columns in their spreadsheet at the same time. Here again is an interesting pattern in mathematics, one we do not generally expect. Odds and evens often seem to students to be an unimportant distinction, but it is not. Odd and even numbers appear again and again across all of mathematics and in many of our Labs. It is important not only as a pattern, but it tells us to pay attention to odd number products because they are rarer than even number products.
How Many Times
How many of the numbers from 1 to 100 are in the times table? All, Most, Less than half? I think you will find in this exploration of the relationship between the multiplication table products and the whole numbers as fascinating as I have. It is one of my favorite Labs because it gives us a chance to explore the patterns of both the times table and the hundreds table. And at the same time it helps us to see the patterns and to practice the multiplication facts.
Prime Numbers
The prime numbers are among the most fascinating objects in all of mathematics. While we can generate them, we do not know or understand their pattern. Yet, they have some fascinating patterns that we can easily see like the twin primes. We found on the Web a Conditional Formatting formula by Bob Umlas that colors prime number cells so you can see their pattern. I find playing with prime patterns great fun.
Interest
Which form of interest, simple or compound, is the fairest? If you were buying a house or a car which would you rather have, which would you consider fair? Or if you had your money in a bank account earning interest, which would you consider the fairest way to calculate that interest? We will show you how to calculate each and help you think about what is fair as far as interest is concerned.