LEARNING TO WALK : A personal journey

Summary

This journal is about experiences of a personal journey. The journal is related

between mathematics and surrounding. For instance, the topic of estimate time, judge
angle, decides on relative length and keep a certain rhythm when learnt to walk and
particularly up and down stairs.

For topic angles, the activity is about to judge angle of knee. So, the step is knee
must not be higher than hip when seated. Then your friend will use a handy type of
protractor by which he or she could measure angles. Beside, goniometer is one of thing
that can be use to measure angle. Goniometer can measure angle from 0 degrees to
180 degrees in clockwise and anticlockwise direction and there is also a 0 degrees to
360 degrees scale in the inner circle. The instrument includes two strips extending from
origin of the semicircular scales. One of these is graduated as a measuring rule and
rotates and the other is blank and is of one piece with the circle protractor. It is useful for
student especially in primary school because the student can use it for measuring angle
around the body, e.g. elbow, knee, ankle, etc.

The other activity is stairs. As we all know children love to climb up and down
stairs. In fact, it is one of the time-honoured strategies for learning to count. Using one
to one correspondence, each step is enumerated as a number in the number sequence.
This can be divided in three stages.

Stage 1: using unifix cube build a staircase. How many blocks did you need for
staircase with 3 steps? 4 steps? 5 steps?

Build an up and down staircase and find out how many blocks you used for different
numbers of steps. What kind of numbers have you found?

This activity can be extended for better students. Which numbers cannot be stairscase
numbers of either type? (powers of 2).

Stage 2: Play leapfrog with 1 and then 2 counter on each end and then with 3 and 4 and
5 and so one. This is what it look like start. There are 5 square with 2 white (say)
counters one end and 2 black (say) counters on the other end.
The activity ask to interchange the position of the counters so that the black one are
where the white ones were to begin and the white one are where the black one were.
The idea is to make this change in the minimum number of moves. This is to show the
pattern and rhythm that is emerging as the activity progresses.

Stage 3: Pascal’s Triangle, it is a kind of a stairs. There are many other patterns can be
find in Pascal’s Triangle.

Then, the other activity is further pattern. For example, doing the exercise in the pool,
we can plenty of opportunity to observe the pattern in the tiles surrounding the pool.

Design

Finally, the journal told about the bars. The bar is some kind of mathematics activity that
can be found in surrounding. For example, parallel bar that can be seen in the
gymnasium or playground. The features of parallel bar that can be found in
mathematics is parallel line.