Once Upon a Prime
Project Description
Did mathematics play a role in defining our history and how have numbers changed over time? Students had to create story outlines and proposals for a two page narrative non-fiction story that captures a moment in the history of mathematics. Students needed to research influential or influenced facts or events in history. The class put together a book that is a collection of mathematical stories throughout history. Each student’s story, along with their defining image, will be included in a chronological collection. This was a physical timeline made up of homemade panels during exhibition and there is also a interactive digital timeline of student’s final products.
Final Product
One winter night, I walked into a Chinese restaurant for a hot meal that would hopefully satisfy my chow mein craving. As I was waiting in a corner booth by myself, I snatched a fortune cookie from a basket sitting on the bar and quickly unwrapped the little crunchy treat. I read my fortune under my breath: you will make great discoveries. As I ate half of the cookie I glanced at the numbers on the back and made a strange conclusion. All of the numbers were odd. I do not know if it was the spicy sauce talking, but I suddenly was very curious about the history of even and odd numbers.
The next day at school I decided to ask my math teacher, Mele about even numbers. I was not sure what I wanted to find but I knew I had to just start looking. I asked her after math class, “What are even numbers?” expecting a very complicated and intelligent response but instead, she asked me the same thing. “What do you think even numbers are?” I immediately started chanting my favorite soccer cheer. “two, four, six, eight?” “Those are even numbers but did you know there is an equation? The equation is n=2k”
Mele then asked me to draw six dots. She instructed me to draw six dots. Draw three dots in a row and three dots in a row an inch below the first set of dots. Now, connect the dots” Mele said as she handed me a blue whiteboard marker. This created a with two sides six inches and two sides ten inches. At first, I thought Mele was tricking and this rectangle was completely irrelevant however it all clicked when she gave me my next task. “Now I want you to draw five dots. Draw three dots in a row and two dots in a row an inch below the first set of dots” Mele said. I drew the dots and expected for her to say connect the dots, but this time it was an odd shape, not a rectangle. Mele then told me, “Euclid, a famous Greek mathematician, gave the definition of even numbers in his book 7, that an even number is that which is divisible into two parts." The bell rang and I needed to report to my next class so that night I took it upon myself to do some further research about this basic math concept.
When I went home and started on my homework, I could not help but look up information on numbers before starting any of my other homework. I first found more from Euclid’s book that odd and even numbers are found in English in various middle age documents including Art of Nombrynge from around 1430. Odd numbers were called gnomons back in the day because when they are added to squares, they keep the same figures. I also learned that in Egypt 3100 B.C., the first base ten system was created and the goal of mathematicians was to prove the “bounded” gaps conjecture milestone. Yitang Zhang published a paper in 2001 that educated us about the new mathematical discoveries about even numbers. The basic concept of even numbers is any integer that can evenly be divided by two. As for odd numbers, they are not even and are not disable by two. A prime number is a natural number that is greater than one and does not have positive divisors other than itself and one. A natural number that is greater than one is not a prime number. These numbers are called composite numbers. All of these definitions fall under the same category of numbers and I had never paid so much attention to these things that I am used to seeing in math class and having to work with them.
As my day went on, I went to my dance class. In the middle of my ballet class, it hit me. Everything in dance is on even counts. It provides consistency, rhythm and pattern. It also got me thinking about cars. Most of the time, cars have an even number of seats and parents have approximately two kids in the United States. I reminded myself as I was doing my barre exercise that ancient Japanese prefered odd numbers because they thought they were lucky numbers. I started seeing patterns and numbers everywhere. When I drove home from dance I looked at the rectable street signs and related it back to when Mele had me draw on the board. The next day I returned to the Chinese restaurant with a whole new perspective on numbers and its history.
Reflection
Some challenges that I faced while preparing for this the once upon a prime math exhibition was making time to work on the board. I finished my story with my one liner, my picture, facts and timeline components and I spent some times waiting for my other two group members to finish so that I could cut and glue our pieces to our panel which was my job as the designer. We were rushed but finished in time to work on our other exhibition. I knew that I was done with our final product when I made sure that all of the pieces that were required were on the board and it looked professional. The numeracy in the process or product of this project happened in the beginning stages of research and mastering our topic. We also had to figure out dimensions of our board so that we could fit all of our facts.
Did mathematics play a role in defining our history and how have numbers changed over time? Students had to create story outlines and proposals for a two page narrative non-fiction story that captures a moment in the history of mathematics. Students needed to research influential or influenced facts or events in history. The class put together a book that is a collection of mathematical stories throughout history. Each student’s story, along with their defining image, will be included in a chronological collection. This was a physical timeline made up of homemade panels during exhibition and there is also a interactive digital timeline of student’s final products.
Final Product
One winter night, I walked into a Chinese restaurant for a hot meal that would hopefully satisfy my chow mein craving. As I was waiting in a corner booth by myself, I snatched a fortune cookie from a basket sitting on the bar and quickly unwrapped the little crunchy treat. I read my fortune under my breath: you will make great discoveries. As I ate half of the cookie I glanced at the numbers on the back and made a strange conclusion. All of the numbers were odd. I do not know if it was the spicy sauce talking, but I suddenly was very curious about the history of even and odd numbers.
The next day at school I decided to ask my math teacher, Mele about even numbers. I was not sure what I wanted to find but I knew I had to just start looking. I asked her after math class, “What are even numbers?” expecting a very complicated and intelligent response but instead, she asked me the same thing. “What do you think even numbers are?” I immediately started chanting my favorite soccer cheer. “two, four, six, eight?” “Those are even numbers but did you know there is an equation? The equation is n=2k”
Mele then asked me to draw six dots. She instructed me to draw six dots. Draw three dots in a row and three dots in a row an inch below the first set of dots. Now, connect the dots” Mele said as she handed me a blue whiteboard marker. This created a with two sides six inches and two sides ten inches. At first, I thought Mele was tricking and this rectangle was completely irrelevant however it all clicked when she gave me my next task. “Now I want you to draw five dots. Draw three dots in a row and two dots in a row an inch below the first set of dots” Mele said. I drew the dots and expected for her to say connect the dots, but this time it was an odd shape, not a rectangle. Mele then told me, “Euclid, a famous Greek mathematician, gave the definition of even numbers in his book 7, that an even number is that which is divisible into two parts." The bell rang and I needed to report to my next class so that night I took it upon myself to do some further research about this basic math concept.
When I went home and started on my homework, I could not help but look up information on numbers before starting any of my other homework. I first found more from Euclid’s book that odd and even numbers are found in English in various middle age documents including Art of Nombrynge from around 1430. Odd numbers were called gnomons back in the day because when they are added to squares, they keep the same figures. I also learned that in Egypt 3100 B.C., the first base ten system was created and the goal of mathematicians was to prove the “bounded” gaps conjecture milestone. Yitang Zhang published a paper in 2001 that educated us about the new mathematical discoveries about even numbers. The basic concept of even numbers is any integer that can evenly be divided by two. As for odd numbers, they are not even and are not disable by two. A prime number is a natural number that is greater than one and does not have positive divisors other than itself and one. A natural number that is greater than one is not a prime number. These numbers are called composite numbers. All of these definitions fall under the same category of numbers and I had never paid so much attention to these things that I am used to seeing in math class and having to work with them.
As my day went on, I went to my dance class. In the middle of my ballet class, it hit me. Everything in dance is on even counts. It provides consistency, rhythm and pattern. It also got me thinking about cars. Most of the time, cars have an even number of seats and parents have approximately two kids in the United States. I reminded myself as I was doing my barre exercise that ancient Japanese prefered odd numbers because they thought they were lucky numbers. I started seeing patterns and numbers everywhere. When I drove home from dance I looked at the rectable street signs and related it back to when Mele had me draw on the board. The next day I returned to the Chinese restaurant with a whole new perspective on numbers and its history.
Reflection
Some challenges that I faced while preparing for this the once upon a prime math exhibition was making time to work on the board. I finished my story with my one liner, my picture, facts and timeline components and I spent some times waiting for my other two group members to finish so that I could cut and glue our pieces to our panel which was my job as the designer. We were rushed but finished in time to work on our other exhibition. I knew that I was done with our final product when I made sure that all of the pieces that were required were on the board and it looked professional. The numeracy in the process or product of this project happened in the beginning stages of research and mastering our topic. We also had to figure out dimensions of our board so that we could fit all of our facts.