Educator Night at The Thinkery

Josephine ShengCommunity Partnerships, Intern Experience, Teacher Support & TrainingLeave a Comment

MathHappens Interns Josephine Sheng and Viyang Shah had the opportunity to try out an activity on Freese’s Dissections at The Thinkery’s Educator Night on October 17th, 2019. They had a great time interacting with educators in the Austin area and demonstrate to them how math can be approachable and fun. Some even said they’d leave their personalized puzzles at their

MathHappens @ TEKSCon Showcase 2019 July 30

Lauren SiegelConference Presentations, Events, Field Trips, History Connections, Mathematical Artifacts, Teacher Support & Training, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

At the Showcase you can meet Elizabeth Lay, MathHappens’ Program Manager who is developing an innovative new unit.   MathHappens has obtained an original manuscript written by Texas surveyor Robert Creuzbauer that details a dual system of land measurement standards unique to Texas.  The new unit will  connect Texas History and Mathematics curricula addressing TEKS for both math and history.

How Tall is the Flagpole- Using mirrors to find Proportions CAMT 2019

Lauren SiegelConference Presentations, Events, Teacher Support & Training, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

Introduction We ask our students to imagine a huge variety of scenarios in math class:  trains approaching each other, roller coasters, boats sailing into the wind, buying ice cream, baking cakes, filling vases, sharing pizzas and on.  But our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, with very different life experiences and may not be able to relate to

CAMT Presentation July 10!

Lauren SiegelConference Presentations, Intern Experience, Teacher Support & Training, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

We are excited to bring two backpacks full of MathHappens goodies for door prizes. Paola Garcia and I are co-presenting a session with star Austin High math teacher Mardi Nott.  Participants are going to look into each others eyes and discover the power of geometry to analyze light reflections, using similar triangles to reveal the height or distance of objects

Mardi Nott Presents at AACTM

Lauren SiegelConference Presentations, Field Trips, Teacher Support & TrainingLeave a Comment

On Saturday, Mardi Nott presented about math field trips with MathHappens at the AACTM Winter Conference. AACTM stands for Austin Area Council of Teacher of Mathematics, which is affiliated with the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM). Our presentation slides are available here. Mardi presented about field trips she has done to the Austin Nature and Science Center, Harry

Region XIII Ed Camp – Unconferencing

Lauren SiegelConference Presentations, Intern Experience, Teacher Support & TrainingLeave a Comment

Very excited to participate in this conference.   Lauren, Abdul, Paola and Ben all  attended and also led sessions and learned a lot about this new format.  Discussion based, the sessions are facilitated rather than led.  Project based learning, maker spaces, equity and math were all on the topic lists.  Teachers were really interested in the Napier’s Bones models we

Educator Night!

Lauren SiegelIntern Experience, Teacher Support & TrainingLeave a Comment

This evening we headed to the Thinkery which is hosting an event for educators.  MathHappens interns Paola Garcia, Josephine Sheng and Ben Duong provided information on three field trips that will help teachers help students understand math in context and possibly answer the infamous “so what” question.  In addition we will be making and designing with the Spiral of Theodorus.