MIDDLE: Math research in Library

[Betty Daniels <bdaniel@FREESIDE.SCSD.K12.NY.US>]

I have an 8th grade Math teacher who has done some interesting
assignments in the library that I'm sure could be used for 6th
graders also.

1. The students select an animal to research and then find out as
many mathematical facts as possible about the animal. Encyclopedias,
other Animal reference books, regular books from the collection and
Natl. Geographic's CD-ROM Mammals.(eg. weight, gestation period,
life span,etc. There's quite a few.)

2. Similar to above, but teacher has students select a famous
building or other structure and again, mathematical facts are
collected. He uses things like the Pyramids, Golden Gate Bridge,
Sears Tower, Empire State Bldg.etc. He had quite an extensive
list. I have now built up the collection in this area and it is
quite a successful assignment.

Both of these assignments end in an oral report, written report
or poster with facts stated next to picture.

3.Famous mathemeticians...a new twist that I like so much better
than just looking up information on the person was collecting the
information on the person in the form of a Resume. In other words
a student would "pretend" they were Aristotle, for example. The
teacher provided a form that he devised that enabled the students
to gather the info. that a resume would contain...educational
background, honors or achievements, type of position they were
seeking, etc.  He also had a poster he hung in the library that
was a time-line of mathemeticians and scientists. The students had
to select someone from the same time period as the person they
researched, and that scientist etc.could be used as a "reference"
for their mathemetician's resume.  Do some leg work for this one..
not every mathemetician had the necessary info. available on them.
Encyclopedia of World Biography was most helpful.


Betty Daniel
Shea Middle School
Syracuse NY
bdaniel@freeside.scsd.k12.ny.us