Category Archives: Math Mini Sparks

#92: π Day

Math Mini Sparks, Uncategorized

Pi is one the most studied numbers in mathematics and on March 14 (or 3/14), we celebrate Pi Day because 3.14 are the first digits of pi.

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #92: π Day
  2. Learn about 18 ways that NASA uses Pi!  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/list/oh-the-places-we-go-18-ways-nasa-uses-pi/. Record a few ideas on your recording page.
  3. Learn about other interesting Pi Facts at https://www.piday.org/pi-facts/. Create a info page about what you learned
  4. Find your “Pi Day” using this site. Type in your birthday and record where in pi your date appears.  Do this for a friend or your teacher and record their pi day. I put in my birthdate and the sequence of numbers does not show up until digit 169, 266! 
  5. Choose an interesting way to represent Pi! Check out the ideas at the end of this post.
  6. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the Pi Masters badge at the EY website.

PiSong1

Screen Shot 2016-03-01 at 10.28.23 PM

Pi Grid Art

#91: Mythical Mathematical Mind Reader

Math Mini Sparks

This is an interesting game to solve. When you are done, challenge yourself to explain your math thinking.

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #91: Mythical Mathematical Mind Reader

2. Go to The Mind Reader website created by Transum and follow the instructions

         

The Mind Reader

4. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Record all of your math step-by-step on your paper.

5. Look for patterns

6. Brainstorm possible reasons why The Mind Reader is able to predict your symbol every time.

7. At the end of the 5 minutes, write a several sentences about how you think this game works.

8. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

lesson adapted from https://www.transum.org/Maths/Investigation/Mind_Reader/ and Yummy math

#90: A Ridiculous, Long Way to Find Out the Day of the Week You Were Born

Math Mini Sparks

Do you know what day of the week you were born on?  If not, you could…

  1. Ask your parent(s)/guardian(s) if they remember the day of the week.

  2. You could “Google”: What day of the week was May 16, 1975 (that’s my birthday)

OR

You can do this ridiculously long way…which is more fun IMO!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #90: A Ridiculous, Long Way to Find Out the Day of the Week You Were Born

2.  Follow the steps. If you would like to see an example of the steps, scroll down to the bottom of this post.

Step 1: Take the last 2 digits of the year in which you were born.

Step 2: Divide that number by 4 and ignore any remainder.

Step 3: Add the day of the month to the answer from step 2

Step 4: Add the month’s key value to the answer from step 3.

January and October:Key Value = 1

February, March, and November: Key Value = 4

April and July: Key Value = 0

May: Key Value = 2

June: Key Value = 5

August: Key Value = 3

September and December: Key Value = 6

Step 5: Subtract 1 for January or February of a leap year.

Step 6:

Add 0 if the date is in the 1900s

Add 6 if the date is in the 2000s

Add 4 for the 1700s

Add 2 for the 1800s

Step 7:  Add the last 2 digits of the year.

Step 8: Divide by 7 and take the remainder.

Remainder 1 is Sunday

Remainder 2 is Monday

Remainder 3 is Tuesday

Remainder 4 is Wednesday

Remainder 5 is Thursday

Remainder 6 is Friday

3. Now double-check your work by searching on Google!

4.Create a product that shows your work!  Example:

5. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

#89 Matrices

Math Mini Sparks

Matrices are rectangular arrangements of rows and columns. In this mini spark, you will learn about the basics of matrices.

Here are three examples.

    

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #89 Matrices

2. Watch the 2 videos below and take notes with the new information you learned.

3. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

You can extend your learning by completing the Marvelous Matrices badge!

#88: EWeek

Math Mini Sparks, MS Learning Opportunities

Calling all FUTURE ENGINEERS…Every year in February we celebrate EWeek. No matter what month it is, you can dive into this engineering career study and learn more about what types of work each engineer does to help our world.

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #88: EWeek
  2. Learn about 5 different types of engineers. Record the type of engineer and a description of the work they do https://www.mathcounts.org/resources/engineers-week

 3. Look over the descriptions for Hydraulic engineering and Geomatics Engineering.

Hydraulic engineering is a subfield of civil engineering that centers around the transport and management of water resources.Hydraulic engineers design things like channels, canals, dams and levees. They must consider many factors before beginning a project, including the collection, storage, flow, measurement and use of the water, in order to ensure its control, safety and cleanliness

Geomatics engineers collect data and then analyze and interpret it to find solutions  Geomatics engineering plays an important role in construction, transport, communication, mapping and research.

4. Choose one engineering type and work on two (or more if you want) of the problems from the problem set.

Hydraulic engineering problems: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gTPnXgw68FQ03PoWzCNx07jd4m-4gPUWPMRrjutzTYo/copy

–Geomatics Engineering problems:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p3tkRCP3-rBDfzT8hB11_lsWcKmyjFwD/view?usp=sharing

5. Ask your EY teacher to check your work. Solutions are in the mini spark folder.

6. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

#87: Palindrome Party

Math Mini Sparks

From time to time we are lucky and have a Palindrome “Week”. In 2024 we had a 10 day stretch where the dates could be written as a palindrome!

The date reads the same forward as it does backwards.  This doesn’t happen often!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #87: Palindrome Party

2. Check out these palindromes for kids: https://www.cbc.ca/kids/articles/palindromes-theyre-the-same-backwards-and-forwards. Pay special attention to any words that are new to you and phrases that are palindromes. These items should all be included on a taking page.

3. Watch the video about palindromes and pause the video as needed to record any new words/phrases that are palindromes.

 

4. Check out this AMAZING trick write about the patterns you observe and the steps you see: http://somethingorotherwhatever.com/sum-of-3-palindromes/. 

6. Check out some palindrome phrases at: https://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/brainteasers/palindromes/index.htm

What is your favorite phrase from this post?

7. On a piece of paper, make a list of the answers to the following math problems.  You may use a calculator.  11 x 11       111 x 111          1,111 x 1,111.                   11,111 x 11,111           111,111 x 111,111     Based on these answers, can you predict what the answer will be to 111,111,111 x 111,111,111?

8. Where can you find 🅿🅰🅻🅸🅽🅳🆁🅾🅼🅴🆂? Look for these around your school, home, and when you are out and about. Write about what you have noticed.

9. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the palindrome badge at the EY website.

#86 Football Roster Math

Math Mini Sparks

There is a plethora of data when it comes to sports!  Whether you’re looking at individual player stats, team rankings, or just want to see the breakdown of a particular game…MATH IS EVERYWHERE IN SPORTS!

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #86 Football Roster Math
  2. This Mini Spark has you looking at the 24-25 Westside High School Junior Varsity Football Roster.  Download and print a copy of the worksheet and roster by clicking the links below.

Click here for the 24-25 JV roster

Click here for the 24-25 JV problems

3. Add a picture of your finished worksheets to your math mini spark page.

4. Share your math mini spark recording page and your worksheet with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the Roster Math badge at the EY website.

#85 Spreadsheets and Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD)

Math Mini Sparks, Uncategorized

Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) is how far, on average, all data values are from the middle. To find the MAD of the you can follow 3 easy steps:

  1. Find the mean of the values.
  2. Find the distance of each value from that mean (subtract the mean from each value, ignore minus signs which is also the absolute value)
  3. Then find the mean of those distances

For this Math Mini Spark, you’ll be finding the MAD on a spreadsheet.

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #85 Spreadsheets and MAD
  2.  Calculate the MAD of this data set: 3, 6, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 16 
    1. Find the mean of the values.
    2. Find the distance of each value from that mean (subtract the mean from each value, ignore minus signs which is also the absolute value)
    3. Then find the mean of those distances

  3. Look over this post from Math is Fun that outlines the steps. Make sure that each of the steps you did were correct.
  4.  Make a Copy of this spreadsheet by clicking the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ndcgCZ1EeVcKausxtkmBkONVfCeilbQNE6ukdUCWYk8/copy
  5.  Watch the video and complete the steps shown in the video on your own spreadsheet. Video: https://youtu.be/nGG2xq1COwE
  6. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

NOTE:  This mini-spark can be used as 1 spreadsheet lesson for the Spreadsheet Superstar Badge.

 

#84 Doodling in Math Class

Math Mini Sparks

What?  Did that say DOODLING?  Yes!

Have fun learning about math while doodling from one of my favorite mathematicians/doodlers…Vi Hart!

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #84 Doodling in Math Class
  2.  Choose 3 of the videos on this post to watch.
  3. Create a doodle page for each showing what you learned.
  4. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

#83 The Luhn Algorithm

Math Mini Sparks

The Luhn algorithm or Luhn formula, also known as the modulus 10″ or “mod 10” algorithm, was developed in the 1960s as a method of validating whether or not identification numbers provided by a user are accurate.

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #83 The Luhn Algorithm
  2. Look over this chart.   What do you notice about each of the rows?

3. Read this article about the formula and how it is used in real life to catch errors when shopping online.

4. Research the creator Peter Luhn and make a timeline about his life.

5. In this video you will learn how to use the Luhn Algorithm. Make the table on paper as you watch.

6. Complete the math challenge presented by CEMC math . Print it out, read the page and look at the different strategy that they present to you.  Work on the challenge presented.

7. Check you work with this answer key.

8. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.