The nice thing that happened in class today:
Grade 5 students solve a puzzle where they put cuneiform numbers in order (there is no guidance, just work with the symbols, how do you order them?)
I told them they are like archeologists cracking a code. They did it!
"But where is zero?"
"It wasn't invented yet." I said this seriously. I mean ... it's true.
Later that day the same student asked if it was a joke. I got to tell them no! Zero had to be invented. Everything had to be invented!
@dahukanna @futurebird I was once asked what book a 13yo should read about math. I said "give'em Eric Bell's _Men of Mathematics_".
The book is well-written, and it's full of scurrilous gossip and silly legendary bullshit.
But at 13, we don't really need to know the truth of everything. We need to know that math really *matters*, we need to know that actual *people* made math.
Bell's a great story-teller, and at 13 we need to know we are part of a story.
@GeePawHill - 1,000,000%
@futurebird has me remote attending her class making cards right now for that exercise, engaging my curiosity and play. I would be literally skipping iin to class, waiting in anticipation for “math-drama” challenge.
I’m NOT doing the work because of “standard” test and I was not thinking about “inventing zero” pre-university.
myrmepropagandist
Dawn Ahukanna
GeePawHill