Category: General

Trail of the Month: Un paseo pirata matemático

Our new Trail of the Month is located in Alcobendas, Spain. The trail in the town north of Madrid has been frequently used in teacher practice, as shown by the high number of more than 230 downloads. It was created by José Fernández de la Cigoña and Isabel Docampo for presenting MathCityMap during the Spanish […]

Author MathCityMap AdminDate
General

Our new Trail of the Month is located in Alcobendas, Spain. The trail in the town north of Madrid has been frequently used in teacher practice, as shown by the high number of more than 230 downloads. It was created by José Fernández de la Cigoña and Isabel Docampo for presenting MathCityMap during the Spanish mes de las matemáticas (month of mathematics; click here for the website and here for our report on the project).

In the following interview, José Fernández de la Cigoña highlights the use of the MathCityMap pirate narrative and introduces her trail “Un paseo pirata matemático por el Jardín de La Vega”.

How do you get in contact with MathCityMap?

We got in touch with MathCityMap by the Spanish website Marzo, mes de las matemáticas from whom we were asked to prepare a trail to contribute to the month of mathematics. So, we looked for some information, signed up for the MathCityMap MOOC and started creating on our trail. We aim at a broad revision of learned topics, mainly geometry but also divisibility, probability or proporcionality, among others. 

Our students in school have already worked on the trail! In fact, we are a little surprised by the high number of downloads of our trail by other users.

Please describe your trail.

Our trail is placed in a park in Alcobendas, a city close to Madrid. The website Marzo, mes de las matemáticas guided us on the kind of tasks we could look for, and one great characteristic of this trail is that most of the tasks can be easily recreated in any city around the world [so-called Generic Tasks]. The special attribute of this trail lies in a story connecting all the tasks, a sort of pirate adventure based on the MathCityMap pirate narrative.

Please sketch one of your tasks. What is the mathematical question? How could you solve it?

The most inventive task in our trail is “La batalla final” (The final battle). It is located on a playground where you can find a pirate ship. The aim of the task is to find the probability of hitting the ship if you fire a cannon. So it’s about probability and geometry since you need to evaluate the ship area and the area of the playground to know the probability.

Why do you use the pirate narrative. What are its benefits?

Since we have been developed a pirate story, it seemed so natural to use the pirate narrative. In fact, this narrative inspired us to create the story.

 

Spanish Month of Mathematics with MCM

MathCityMap is broadly disseminated in Spain: In addition to our long-term partner FESPM, a teachers’ association, our project is now also promoted by the initiators of the mes de las matemáticas (month of mathematics) in Spain. For this purpose, in cooperation between mes de las matemáticas and the FESPM, seven trails have been created, three […]

Author MathCityMap AdminDate
General

MathCityMap is broadly disseminated in Spain: In addition to our long-term partner FESPM, a teachers’ association, our project is now also promoted by the initiators of the mes de las matemáticas (month of mathematics) in Spain.

For this purpose, in cooperation between mes de las matemáticas and the FESPM, seven trails have been created, three of them for primary school children and four for secondary school children. Four of the new math trails are located in Malaga near the Costa del Sol, and two others in Jaén, Andalusia. The seventh and last math trail, which was created as part of this project, was created in Alcobendas near Madrid. We will present it to you in May as Trail of the Month.

 

List of the new math trails:

Spanish Month of Mathematics with MCM

MathCityMap is broadly disseminated in Spain: In addition to our long-term partner FESPM, a teachers’ association, our project is now also promoted by the initiators of the mes de las matemáticas (month of mathematics) in Spain. For this purpose, in cooperation between mes de las matemáticas and the FESPM, seven trails have been created, three […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

MathCityMap is broadly disseminated in Spain: In addition to our long-term partner FESPM, a teachers’ association, our project is now also promoted by the initiators of the mes de las matemáticas (month of mathematics) in Spain.

For this purpose, in cooperation between mes de las matemáticas and the FESPM, seven trails have been created, three of them for primary school children and four for secondary school children. Four of the new math trails are located in Malaga near the Costa del Sol, and two others in Jaén, Andalusia. The seventh and last math trail, which was created as part of this project, was created in Alcobendas near Madrid. We will present it to you in May as Trail of the Month.

 

List of the new math trails:

Collection of MCM@home Trails

Dear users, in the last year, a large number of MCM@home trails have been created. Students can work on these digital learning paths from home or in distance learning phases. All your learners have to do is to enter the code in the free and GPDR-compliant MathCityMap app. Ready to start! We hope you enjoy […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

Dear users,

in the last year, a large number of MCM@home trails have been created. Students can work on these digital learning paths from home or in distance learning phases.

All your learners have to do is to enter the code in the free and GPDR-compliant MathCityMap app. Ready to start!

We hope you enjoy working through them!

 

LanguageGradeTitelCode
English7[MCM@home] Pribina Square Nitra052591
9Erasmus Days 2020 I273177
9Erasmus Days 2020 II583178
9MCM@Home: Semarang232525
10[MCM@home] Berlin052524
Spanish8Actividades en casa062651
8El patio de mi casa es particular…472991
8MathCity@Home 2º ESO562551
9Campo de fútbol del Racing de Santander782526
9Ruta PI de la FESPM044282
10Matemáticas en el baloncesto382998
10Noche Europea de los Investigadores-Noviembre 2020893300
Italian8Matematica a tutto tondo per IDM 2021 – scuola secondaria di I grado044258
11Matematica a tutto tondo per IDM 2021 – scuola secondaria di II grado184244
Portuguese8MCM@Home: PT-Porto [7/8]692543
9MCM@Home: PT-Porto [9]062544
9MCM_PI_Guimaraes @ home384252
12MCM@Home: PT-Guimarães022552
Slovak5[MCM@home]Dubovce2164107
5[MCM@home]Kombinatorika okolo prezidentského paláca v Bratislave342691
6[MCM@home] Dvory nad Žitavou292584
7[MCM@home] Pribinovo námestie Nitra142598
7[MCM@home]Holíčsky zámok392602
7[MCM@home]Senica172870
8[MCM@home]Dubovce342540
8[MCM@home]U včelárov363332
8[MCM@home]Veľké Borové393526
8Vratna@Home562529
9[MCM@home] Detské ihrisko Nové Zámky383533
9[MCM@home] Objemy a povrchy v lesoparku Žilina152588
9[MCM@home]Skalica692760
9[MCM@home]Stromy okolo rieky Nitra174015
10[MCM@home]πNitra084229
Indonesian9MCM@home: Matematika di Sekitar Kita684255
German3Mathe-Adler Knobelaufgaben072592
3Mathe-Adler Rätselspaß282593
3Mathe-Adler: Folgen und Reihen012519
3Mathe-Adler: Kombinatorik262518
3Mathe-Adler: Zahlenrätsel192515
3Rechentricks für die Mathe-Adler073299
4MathCityMap@home Fortbildung – Grundschule353578
6Mathe-Adler Knobeln für Fortgeschrittene054098
8MCM indoors: Mathematik-Wettbewerb 1183150
8MCM indoors: Mathematik-Wettbewerb 2073244
8MCM@Home: Lineare Funktionen012514
8Umgang mit Termen063152
9MCM@Home LemaS Fortbildung Bremen344106
9MCM@Home: Quadratische Funktionen682517
9iM INTernet: Fortbildung zu MCM@home154204
9MCM@home-Fortbildung783277
9ZAA HS Pflichtteil 2019354115
9ZAA HS Wahlteil 2018014129
10ZAA HS Wahlteil 2019144260
10Mathematik ist überall! Trail zum IDM 2021134205
10MCM@Home: Ffm a. M.692521
10ZAA RS Pflichtteil 2019164132
10ZAA RS Wahlteil 2018124130
10ZAA RS Wahlteil 2019174133

 

Did you also create a MCM@home learning path and would like to share it with other users? Great!

Then please write an email with…

  • the name of your MCM@home trail,
  • the related code,
  • the grade level,
  • and the language of the digital learning path

to barlovits[at]math.uni-frankfurt.de.

We would be very happy to add your contribution to the list as well!

We celebrate 20,000 tasks on the web portal!

MathCityMap celebrates the 20,000th task in the web portal! In the past weeks and months, you, dear users, have been active and created numerous interesting tasks in the web portal. Our anniversary task was created by Jesica Sanchez Lagrange near Madrid and asks for the circumference of a rectangular information board. Click here to display […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

MathCityMap celebrates the 20,000th task in the web portal! In the past weeks and months, you, dear users, have been active and created numerous interesting tasks in the web portal.

Our anniversary task was created by Jesica Sanchez Lagrange near Madrid and asks for the circumference of a rectangular information board. Click here to display this task.


We are looking forward to many more MathCityMap tasks!

We welcome our new MCM Reviewers from Indonesia!

We welcome our new MCM Reviewers from Indonesia! Together with our long-time MCM supporter Adi Nur Cahyono, the new mebers will review the tasks submitted for publication and help you make the tasks even better. We look forward to many new tasks from Indonesia! *** Do you want to become a MCM Reviewer? *** But […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

We welcome our new MCM Reviewers from Indonesia! Together with our long-time MCM supporter Adi Nur Cahyono, the new mebers will review the tasks submitted for publication and help you make the tasks even better. We look forward to many new tasks from Indonesia!

*** Do you want to become a MCM Reviewer? ***

But it’s not just Indonesia we’re looking for new reviewers – the MathCityMap team is looking for reviewers for all languages and countries.
You also want to become a MCM reviewer? Great!
Send us an email to info[at]mathcitymap.eu and complete a small training program for reviewers. We are looking forward to you!

19.000 tasks on the MathCityMap Web Portal!

Ceren Kaya has created the 19,000 task on the MathCityMap Web Portal! As part of the seminar “New Media in Mathematics Education” at Frankfurt Goethe University, the use of MathCityMap in the classroom is of course also discussed. For this purpose, the student teachers get to know the MathCityMap system from the learner’s point of […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

Ceren Kaya has created the 19,000 task on the MathCityMap Web Portal! As part of the seminar “New Media in Mathematics Education” at Frankfurt Goethe University, the use of MathCityMap in the classroom is of course also discussed.

For this purpose, the student teachers get to know the MathCityMap system from the learner’s point of view and work on a math trail of their choice. In addition, the use of our tool Digital Classroom is reflected upon (teachers’ perspective).

From the author’s perspective, the students create their own assignments. For this purpose, a picture of the monument of the Hassia spring in Bad Vilbel as well as the corresponding dimensions of the base were given. The student teacher Ceren Kaya then created the task “Mathematics with a magic hand”, in which the volume of the base is to be calculated.

We look forward to many more tasks on MathCityMap!

A brief look at the MCM statistics

Dear users, MathCityMap as a participatory project thrives on you using the existing tasks & mathtrails and creating your own tasks & trails. Today we would like to present you some numbers from the MathCityMap statistics: A total of 18,600 tasks have been published on the MathCityMap web portal since mid-2016 – of which nearly […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

Dear users,

MathCityMap as a participatory project thrives on you using the existing tasks & mathtrails and creating your own tasks & trails. Today we would like to present you some numbers from the MathCityMap statistics:

  • A total of 18,600 tasks have been published on the MathCityMap web portal since mid-2016 – of which nearly 6,000 were published in 2020. Of these, approximately 7,000 tasks were published.
  • 2100 new users have registered with MathCityMap in 2020. In total, the MCM community now counts 6,400 members.
  • The most downloaded mathtrails war 2020 the trail “Forum 2020” by Christian Mercat in Marseille and the trail “[EN] Berlin Gendarmenmarkt” by Simone Jablonski. The MCM@home trail “Campo de fútbol del Racing de Santander” by Claudia Lazaro won the third place.
  • In total, our more than 60 MCM@home trails for distance learning in the Corona pandemic have been downloaded more than 1500 times. Fantastic!

We are already looking forward to welcoming many new members to the MCM community in 2021 and discovering new, exciting tasks all over the world.

Your MathCityMap Team Frankfurt

The MCM Team wishes Merry Christmas

Dear users, Another year is drawing to a close (this time probably a very turbulent one for all of us). Christmas is just around the corner. Time for us to take a brief look back at the past year: This year, almost 5,500 new tasks were created in the system, so that we now count […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

Dear users,

Another year is drawing to a close (this time probably a very turbulent one for all of us). Christmas is just around the corner. Time for us to take a brief look back at the past year:

  • This year, almost 5,500 new tasks were created in the system, so that we now count a total of almost 17,600 tasks in the MathCityMap portal, of which about 7,000 tasks were published.
    We also saw a sharp increase in registered users: Approximately 2000 new MathCityMap users registered in the system. In total, the MCM community now counts 6,200 members.
  • Our Erasmus+ project MoMaTrE (Mobile Math Trails in Europe) was successfully completed. We would like to thank our European partners from Lyon (France), Porto & Lisbon (Portugal), Santander (Spain) and Nitra (Slovakia) as well as our app developer team from autentek in Berlin for the great collaboration over the past three years. At the end of the project, the ROSETA proceedings all about extracurricular learning with digital media in science and technology subjects was published – of course, the focus here was also on our MCM system.
  • In May we were able to present our new MathCityMap web portal: In the new design, creating tasks & trails is even more fun – especially since there are now also awards for working with MathCityMap: For creating tasks & trails, running digital classrooms, downloads of your own trails or your contact to other MCM users, you can collect up to six badges each.
  • To make running MCM trails even more fun, we’ve also given our app a new design. In addition to the visual redesign, the app now offers the option to create tasks and trails directly on your phone.
  • To support virtual teaching and distance learning, we developed the MCM@home concept: due to the pandemic, the idea here was to solve tasks from home rather than on site. In total, more than 60 MCM@home trails were created worldwide, which were downloaded more than 1500 times. Fantastic!

Not only because of the Corona pandemic, but also caused by the presented further developments of our MCM system, the past year was exciting for us. However, the great development of the user numbers and tasks would not have been possible without your help and use of the platform. And so, despite all the changes, MathCityMap remains what it is: a digital system for school practice.

We wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2021. We are already looking forward to welcoming many new members to the MCM community and discovering new, exciting tasks all over the world. Stay healthy!

Your MathCityMap Team Frankfurt

Trail of the Month: A math trail for Markdorf!

The math teacher Fabienne Nykiel created the trail “A math trail for Markdorf!” together with her students. In the following, the teacher explains how the students of class 7c of the Markdorf educational center worked out the tasks. How did finding & creating the tasks work with your class? Describe the process from the first […]

Author Simon BarlovitsDate
General

The math teacher Fabienne Nykiel created the trail “A math trail for Markdorf!” together with her students. In the following, the teacher explains how the students of class 7c of the Markdorf educational center worked out the tasks.


How did finding & creating the tasks work with your class? Describe the process from the first idea to the finished trail.

A group of students designed a modeling task on triangular construction together with me in the centre of Markdorf. The teacher informed herself in advance which location might be suitable for a potential modeling task on a specific topic and led the group to this location.

At this location the modeling cycle was discussed again with the students in a didactically reduced form and it was then explained that this cycle is now run backwards (I have called this process of modeling “extended modeling”): In a single work phase the students explored the local situation and each of them thought about the potential possibilities of this location alone in order to design a possible modeling task for the specific topic. After this phase, each student presented his/her ideas. In the plenary session, the students used this as a basis for discussing and debating which idea was the most suitable, creative, individual and closest to reality, whereby several ideas could also be combined into one (‘Think-Pair-Share-Method’).

After the students had already had their goal and result in mind, they considered how they could achieve this goal in the world of mathematics, i.e. by mathematical work (estimating, measuring, calculating, constructing, …) and carried out their considerations simultaneously. In doing so, they filtered out the explicit hints that could later be given in the MathCityMap app. Each small group was fully motivated and enthusiastic. They all emphasized that it was a lot of fun to finally do something ‘useful’ with mathematics.

As a last step, the students formulated the task, the three hints and the final solution (with its range of solutions) in detail. I transferred this information to the web portal and created the individual tasks. At the end, all tasks were combined into a trail. As a project conclusion, the trail was run and worked through together on a school day. As far as the Corona regulation (again) allows it, the parallel classes also want to go through the trail.


What do you see as the advantages if the learners create the tasks themselves? What do you hope to achieve?

A big advantage that I have seen in this project was the improvement of the modeling competence of SuS, which has especially developed through “Advanced Modeling”. In addition, SuS also deals with the trained content competencies from a different perspective. Social skills are also trained, such as the ability to work in a team.

Therefore, I hope that I will not only be able to better train the modeling skills, but also a sustainability of the teaching content. I hope that SuS will not forget these mathematical contents and also the modeling skills.

A further advantage is the strengthening of the personality of SuS. They were all visibly proud of the fact that they designed the math trail themselves. The joy was even greater when they learned that the trail would be published and was nominated for the Math Trail of the Month.


Is there a task that you particularly like? If so, please describe it.

I think the task “A larger church clock for Markdorf” is very successful, because many skills are trained. On the one hand, it must be estimated that the gable is an equilateral triangle, whereupon the SuS must measure the width of the tower, which gives them the length of each side of the triangle.  Only with this information can the SuS design the triangle on a sheet with a suitable scale and determine the center of the inscribed circle.

What I particularly like about this task is that it seems ‘unsolvable’ at first glance, because the gable is so far away and cannot be measured easily.