The 153rd Playful Math Education Blog Carnival!

Welcome to the 153rd Playful Math Education Carnival! Thanks to those who blogged and/or tweeted about math, we have another fun-filled carnival this month. Since a picture is worth 1000 words, and tweets usually have lovely pictures and captions included with them, I’ve embedded a lot of tweets in this carnival. Many of the tweets include links to blog posts. You can be transported directly to any area of the carnival you desire by clicking one of the following links:

Ukraine and Math

I have been very upset about the recent events in Ukraine and wondered how I could possibly publish a cheery, playful carnival at this time.

I decided to publish the carnival but include a couple of blog posts that link math and Ukraine.

This first post is a poem about the current situation: Evil Adds Up.

The second post is about Voroinoi Diagrams and Ukrainian mathematician, Georgii Voronoi. I am glad to know a little bit about Goergii Voronoi now after reading that post.

A Fishing Pond

You can learn some fun math facts by reading blogs. A few years ago I read a post on the Math Online Tom Circle blog that made the number 153 unforgettable for me. 153 is known as the St. Peter Fish Number.

Now fishing pond booths are often a part of a traditional carnival so this 153rd edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival just has to have one, too. Its fishing booth has 153 fish in it representing the 153 fish Simon Peter caught in John 21: 9-14.

I made the fish tessellate because tessellation is a cool mathematical concept. The fish form a triangle because 153 is a triangular number. I colored the fish to show that
153 = 5! + 4! + 3! + 2! + 1! I like that 5! is also a triangular number so I put it at the top of the triangle, but 1! and 3! are triangular numbers, too. Can you use addition on the graphic to show that 153 = 1³+5³+3³?

A Little Magic:

That same Tom Circle blog post also revealed the magician’s secret behind a potential math magic trick:
Pick a number, ANY number. Multiply it by 3. Then find the sum of the cubes of its digits. Find the sum of the cubes of the digits of that new number. I might have you repeat that last step a few times. I predict your final number is. . .

No matter what number you choose, I can accurately predict what your final number will be. If you open the sealed envelope in my hand, you will see that I did indeed predict your final number, 153.

Pat’s Blog teaches about another magical number property in Squares That Parrot Their Roots.

Creative Learning AfrikA+ writes about the secret of performing well on tests in It’s not Math Magic, It’s Consistency.

The Enchanted Tweeting Room

Speaking of the number 153, Jo Morgan recently published her 153rd Mathsgem post with many ideas from the Twitterverse:

Latest post! https://t.co/bL3dIAO2Mi

— Jo Morgan (@mathsjem) February 1, 2022

In her 95th Monday Must-Reads blog post, Sara Carter shared some great ideas she saw on Twitter: a math word wall, some Desmos Gingerbread Houses, a Find-the-Imposter Spiderman Surds activity, A Polynomial Two Truths and a Lie game, and much more.

Math Art

Leonardo DeVinci and many other famous artists were also famous for their mathematics. Mathematics used to be considered a liberal art. Denise Gaskins encourages us to bring back the joy of learning math in part one of Rediscover the Liberal Art of Mathematics.

RobertLovesPi uses enneagrams, regular hexagons, and other polygons to make a lovely artistic design. He also creates a shimmering 3-D shape in A Faceted Rhombicosidocecahedron with 540 Faces.

Paula Beardell Krieg wrote about the experience of directly teaching paper folding and indirectly teaching mathematics over zoom for six weeks in A Lovely Experiment.

We can use Desmos to create stunning artwork:

Facilitating #MathPlay doesn’t imply learning less rigorous #math. Precalc ss at #WeAreChappaqua used their knowledge of conics sections to create #MathArt about @encantomovie via @Desmos#MathPlay4All #CodeBreaker #MTBoS #ITeachMath #MathisFun #Maths #STEM #Mathchat #Encanto pic.twitter.com/22tFNJf5FR

— Libo Valencia (@MrValencia24) February 4, 2022

Some say #math is the purest form of #art. There’s no better testament than @Desmos Global Math Art Contest, where students showcase their creativity, ingenuity and, of course, graphing chops. Check out the 2021 winners! https://t.co/i7CS6pe6At #edtech #edchat pic.twitter.com/nJDtyVw5Pz

— Reach Capital (@reachfund) February 10, 2022

Math Games

Every week Denise Gaskins shares a new game on her blog post Math Game Monday.

Julie Naturally shares some Awesome Free Math Games for Kindergartners, no electronics required.

Children at St Margaret’s Lee Church of England Primary School have been playing a domino game called the Mexican Train game. They like it so much that they’ve expressed the desire to play it at home with their families.

How much do children enjoy playing mathy board games? Just read this post by Jenorr73 of One Good Thing: Math Game Joy.

Just learned about “Thinking Bingo”. I haven’t done it yet, but it seems promising! Cheesy video explanation: https://t.co/QA9rnV25Zh

— Haley Conroy (@hconroy27) January 18, 2022

Ben Orlin of Math with Bad Drawings wrote about one of my favorite games, SET, in A Theory of Trios.

It’s Fair Game – Playing Games With Kids: Here are six ways to play with young children while helping them enjoy the ups and downs of competitive tabletop gaming. #mtbos #homeschoolmath #gameschooling https://t.co/sjlA11xTbC

— Denise Gaskins (@letsplaymath) January 14, 2022

Claire Kreuz of NBC’s KARK.com blog reports that a 14-year-old High School student has developed a math game everyone can play even those with special needs.

Puzzles

Colleen Young blogs about a new publication by Jonny Griffiths in A-Level Starters.

This puzzle is my contribution to the carnival:

Here are some puzzles I found on Twitter:

The support version of our number theory & sequences booklet is now available: https://t.co/fi7Ef9Dz1Z pic.twitter.com/32ltjSiXLJ

— Nicola Waddilove (@MathsPadNicola) January 17, 2022

How well do your students REALLY understand quadratics? This @openmiddle problem from @zmill415 will help you figure it out. https://t.co/mEqatlL4Pg #iteachmath pic.twitter.com/RDjbdgd251

— Robert Kaplinsky (@robertkaplinsky) January 14, 2022

Sarah Carter regularly shares puzzles that help us play with math:

I recently re-discovered these Sankaku Puzzles from Naoki Inaba, a prolific Japanese puzzle creator.

The Goal: Connect three dots to form a triangle with the specified area.https://t.co/sMhy4Pk8jE #mtbos #iteachmath #puzzlingclassroom pic.twitter.com/0TNyw77sed

— Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove) January 21, 2022

These pentominoes puzzles have been a HUGE hit with my students this week!

I love designing puzzle stations in my classroom that draw students in and get them solving puzzles on their own! https://t.co/JGna7OXYSX #mtbos #iteachmath #puzzlingclassroom pic.twitter.com/FqMd007YtY

— Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove) January 28, 2022

This week’s puzzle of the week makes me smile every time I walk in my classroom.

How could you not want to solve a penguin pentominoes puzzle?!? https://t.co/abYHrG0kW9#mtbos #iteachmath #puzzlingclassroom pic.twitter.com/NPaFrxCXDG

— Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove) February 16, 2022

Children’s Literature

Mathical Book Prize- check out the 2022 winners! Can’t wait to dig into these with my students. #mathical#mathitude #iteachmath https://t.co/B864z5H51G

— Regina Barrett (@Ms_MathQueen) February 25, 2022

You will want to read the responses to this next tweet. MANY biographies of mathematicians are mentioned:

My colleague @pamallyn and I are looking for picture books that feature mathematicians. We would like to create list of biographies that highlight the diversity in the field of mathematics. We’re happy to share this list once we have it compiled. Thanks. #MTBoS #iteachmath

— Mike Flynn (@MikeFlynn55) January 5, 2022

Mathematical Poetry

What’s a Fib? It’s a poetry style beautifully explained by the Kitty Cats blog.

Molly Hogan of Nix the Comfort Zone wrote thoughtful poems about the Number Zero and How Many Snowflakes Were Seen out her window.

Catherine Flynn of Reading to the Core taught me about the Fibonacci style of writing poems in Poetry Fridays: Fractals, Fibonacci, and Beyond.

Count the syllables in Heidi Mordhorst of My Juicy Little Universe’s poem Jealousy and you will have counted down from nine to one.

MaryLee Hahn of A(another) Year of Reading makes us ponder our footprint in The Mathematics of Consumerism.

Pi Ku Poems for Pi Day – I just created a new free printable template to walk students through the process of writing their own pi day poetry. https://t.co/12j8gi6yPH #mtbos #iteachmath #piday #teach180 pic.twitter.com/RyuudAFZNE

— Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove) February 25, 2022

A Mathematical Limerick #math #limerick #nerd pic.twitter.com/OTuGi3MyYk

— thomas w schaller (@twschaller) January 17, 2021

Number Sense

Mathematics for Enthusiastic First Graders: https://t.co/ygTjdd60bf

— Michael Pershan (@mpershan) January 19, 2022

The Year One Class had a wonderful time playing with numbers as they put the numbers from 0 to 50 in their proper places on a number line and talked about number patterns.

Norah Colvin (Live, Laugh, Learn . . . Create the Possibilities blog) used easily stackable pancakes to help students have a better sense of how much 1000 is.

Could a rekenrek transform how you teach times tables? https://t.co/pZxuaWDPwK

— Amy How (@rekenrek101) January 8, 2022

In Important ideas about addition, Tad Watanabe reminds us that children don’t necessarily understand concepts such as 30 being three tens. Students sometimes erroneously think of multi-digit numbers as “simply a collection of single-digit numbers that are somehow glued together.” He talks about what to do about these and a few other issues students face learning mathematics.

Jenna Laib of Embrace the Challenge observed that one of her students was having difficulty understanding negative numbers. Read what happened when she played a Tiny Number Game with her.

February Fact(orial)… pic.twitter.com/73qMwEYG9x

— Chris Smith (@aap03102) February 1, 2022

Multiplication and Factoring

I’ve written a thing about using and understanding multiplication facts! With each class focusing on the same multiplication fact at the same time, knowledge can be built upon across the school. https://t.co/9bUGD9IWQG #edutwitter pic.twitter.com/gQU0gkbose

— Sarah Farrell (@SarahFarrellKS2) January 19, 2022

I love this context for introducing Least Common Multiple to students. How many hot dogs and buns should he buy?https://t.co/2d6R76hhpN #iteachmath #MTBoS pic.twitter.com/eocTf0wFbq

— Robert Kaplinsky (@robertkaplinsky) February 23, 2022

*New Task*

Thanks for Andy Creighton for sending over this excellent task:https://t.co/W8hw5Ws6XO#mtbos pic.twitter.com/RSP6BifQ0T

— Chris McGrane (@ChrisMcGrane84) February 5, 2022

Fractions

NEW Post: Comparing Fractionshttps://t.co/dZNa0yQlWC #MTBoS #iteachmath

— Fawn Nguyen (@fawnpnguyen) January 20, 2022

Had a great conversation with @SplashSpeaks today about locating fractions on the number line. It won’t be the last I’m sure, but at least we directly confronted her current conception. Halfway and 1/2 are not necessarily the same thing! #tmwyk #ElemMathChat https://t.co/1GjuncEZaA

— Brian Bushart (@bstockus) February 11, 2022

Geometry

Look at the pictures. You can tell that Mrs. Bracken’s class enjoyed exploring and discussing ways to display four squares and their reflections.

Check out Pat’s Blog So You Thought You Knew Everything About Equilateral Triangles.

#StarWarsMath #MTBoS #ITeachMath #MathIsFun #Geometry #DarthMaul #StarWars #Maths #Math #elemmathchat #MathTeacher #STEM #MakeItReal pic.twitter.com/JHR0DPjjAL

— StarWarsMath (@StarWarsMath) January 5, 2022

One of my students showed me this fun little project. Fold 12 post-it notes like the one shown. Then glue together to make a hollow cube! pic.twitter.com/Ia1jWXRz3i

— Mark Kaercher (@shskaercher) February 17, 2022

Math History Museum

Professor in Mathematics Linda McGuire signed up to help the Association for Women in Mathematics with an unusual project.

Over the next 22 months, McGuire and hundreds of other volunteers built a winning hand: the Notable Women in Math Playing Cards.https://t.co/uriLGta3oV pic.twitter.com/RVdd4MYk63

— Muhlenberg College (@Muhlenberg) January 3, 2022

Squares aligned vertically or horizontally appear to tilt. pic.twitter.com/xQJmaca78f

— Akiyoshi Kitaoka (@AkiyoshiKitaoka) January 7, 2022

Health and First Aid Station

What does 20/20 vision really mean? See how far it will let you see into the new year in today’s #bedtimemath! https://t.co/wdc3QN2iUt #STEM

— Bedtime Math (@BedtimeMath) January 3, 2022

Please do download and share the full set of snowflake patterns from https://t.co/mtzyAsutM3 Happy cutting! pic.twitter.com/HTTvCTx6rm

— Hutchinson Lab (@CVRHutchinson) December 2, 2020

Math Anxiety can be a real health issue:

Math Anxiety and Math Therapy: “Math therapy is not just for struggling students, as math anxiety can hit students at any level. Without help, some people will have math anxiety their entire lives.” from @annasmathpage https://t.co/63ewNP6EDI #mtbos #homeschoolmath #playfulmath

— Denise Gaskins (@letsplaymath) January 19, 2022

If you’re teaching math, you need to understand that a student who is ‘afraid of math’ is not afraid of numbers. They are afraid of YOU and their fear is JUSTIFIED because people in your position HAVE HARMED THEM. You will NOT fix it by trying to ‘teach them not to be afraid.’

— Nick Cahill (@Suibeom) February 2, 2022

Children don’t hate maths. What they hate is being confused, intimidated, and embarrassed by maths. With understanding comes passion, and with passion comes growth–a treasure is unlocked. — Larry Martinek

— Colin Wright (@ColinTheMathmo) February 20, 2022

Math Teachers can experience a different type of Math Anxiety:

I was searching through my blog for something and I came across this old post. It’s about anxiety in maths teachers. Like the times when we make a silly mistake on the board, or genuinely don’t know how to do a question. Worth reading the comments too.https://t.co/DMUKRm39jy

— Jo Morgan (@mathsjem) February 21, 2022

The Math Teacher Experience

What if a math lesson is fun but the concepts won’t be a major part of the end-of-year test? Pay attention to Melissa D of the Dean of Math blog post, It’s a fun unit, but it’s not really necessary.

Our latest blog discusses how teachers can be combatting the gender imbalance in mathematics classrooms.

With help from @GirlsCount_2 @Advanced_Maths https://t.co/IQ7fALjjtA

— Maths Scholarships (@Beamathsteacher) December 29, 2021

Anna of iamamathteacher.blogspot.com shares how her school year has gone so far.

Robert Talbert discusses going from a grading-to-upgrading in an upper-level math course.

I revised my problem of the week target rubric and removed the point values. It is more flexible than a wordy grid and students can see at a glance what they need to improve. It also makes it clear that a complete solution has many interconnected parts. pic.twitter.com/JQ1i7h7K3Z

— Jessica McConnell (@MmeMcConnell) February 24, 2022

Football and Math

In Inequalities on the Gridiron, Dick Lipton and Ken Regan talk about why the Buffalo Bills weren’t in the Superbowl and whether or not the c in the inequality
a² – b² = c is positive or negative.

Check out Eric Eager’s article: Football’s lessons about mathematics, academia, and industry.

The Quillette has an interesting, although possibly controversial read: It’s Time to Start Treating High School Math Like Football.

If a math student, football player, or anyone else feels like a zero, they could benefit from Fran Carona inspiring You Are Not a Zero about Cooper Kupp, the Super Bowl MVP.

Statistics

Stanleyavestaff room 6 students enjoyed the lollipop statistics assignment so much fun that they didn’t even know they were doing math.

Joseph Nebus of Another Blog, Meanwhile made a humorous pie chart in Statistics Saturday: My Schedule for Doing Things. Many students and even adults can probably relate to it.

Calculus and Higher Math

Discovering Volumes of Known Cross Sections Using Play-Doh https://t.co/er3UzsmJcI

— Julie (@jreulbach) February 20, 2022

I was a bit surprised that you can post a Pringle through a letterbox-

because twisting straight lines trace out the hyperbolic paraboloid Pringle shape pic.twitter.com/dzhXQaAspn

— Matt Henderson (@matthen2) February 20, 2022

Joseph Nebus of Nebusresearch has been reading a biography of Pierre-Simon LaPlace, so naturally, he blogs about monkeys, typewriters, and William Shakespeare in Some Progress on the Infinitude of Monkeys.

Math Wordle

Wordle has recently taken the world by storm. Got some math vocabulary words for your students? No matter how long the words are, your students can try to guess such words when they’re presented as wordles that you’ve made with the help of mywordle.strivemath.com. I made the one below. I told my son it was a math term and asked him to solve it:

There are also numerous wordles based on numbers rather than letters:

Introducing #Numble created using @GeoGebra

Not Wordle, just a math game

+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =

A new #Numble every day!

Link: https://t.co/WDQMe5YHAi pic.twitter.com/qAvTwJDvJr

— Steven C. Silvestri (@Silvestri26) February 4, 2022

When you get to level 4 it take a bit of luck to keep you calm:

Equatero: https://t.co/yDuPgpEWy3#mathsresources #mathschat #mathchat pic.twitter.com/Q4ElSVlpOy

— Transum (@Transum) February 3, 2022

I did this with my sixth graders today! So fun!! https://t.co/m0WTCr9D1p

— ruth erquiaga (@math6teacher) January 28, 2022

Have a go at Ooodle too. An order of operations version of wordle https://t.co/uyuhMexA8u pic.twitter.com/2ZR3A5WB5z

— Mark Weddell (@markfromlondon) January 20, 2022

Stand-up Comedy Show

if you’re interested in someone who does jokes about mathematics and polyhedra and stuff, our comedian’s solid

— Michael Pershan (@mpershan) January 2, 2022

Archon’s Den shared some clever Math One-liners that will make you and your students either roll on the floor with laughter or roll your eyes.

never let a mathematician teach a child the alphabet

me: where should we put this “for all”?
2yo: noooo! that’s an A!
me: oh ok. what about this epsilon?
2yo: that’s a 3!!
me: and this “there exists”?
2yo: no! that’s a E!
me: ok ok. what about this W?
2yo: that’s an M!#mtbos

— M Shah (@shahlock) January 22, 2022

Right triangles imply the existence of wrong triangles.

— Howie Hua (@howie_hua) February 20, 2022

This is a mathematics joke. https://t.co/7uVAaqF6o0 pic.twitter.com/oaE2XsvuBj

— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) January 5, 2022

Throat and Nasal Passages https://t.co/wPxrOeUoAc https://t.co/3UJK4Ibp3A pic.twitter.com/1kq8zWz0rN

— XKCD Comic (@xkcdComic) January 3, 2022

Nice work!! So many things you can do with Fibonacci, including soup #MTBoS #ITeachMath #MathIsFun #STEM pic.twitter.com/tDBxzFmTWl

— Libo Valencia (@MrValencia24) January 6, 2022

This is a mathematics joke. https://t.co/RUZNaHSbch pic.twitter.com/Bqlb9V7fcp

— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) January 6, 2022

Dialogue from today’s Linear Algebra class:

Student 1: Can we watch a movie the last day of class?
Me: No.
Student 2: But what if it’s a math movie?
Student 3: Wait WE CAN WATCH THE MATRIX!

— Patrick Honner (@MrHonner) January 6, 2022

“You can’t teach #maths using memes”

Me: pic.twitter.com/VLEZeB1jsb

— Chris Bowstead #AortaKnowBetter (@BunsenLearner) January 16, 2022

Other Carnivals

The 201st edition of the Carnival of Mathematics can be found at the team at Ganit Charcha.

Last month the 152nd Playful Math Carnival was hosted by Denise Gaskins. Perhaps you would like to host the next carnival or one later in the year. We need more volunteers! To volunteer to host the carnival go to Denise Gaskins’ Carnival Volunteer Page.