Task of the Week: Windows
Our new task of the week is in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg! In Schifflange, Yves Kreis, senior lecturer at the University of Luxembourg, has created the task “Windows“. In the following interview he reports about the use of MathCityMap for his university teaching.
Hello Yves, you use MathCityMap for your teaching at the University of Luxembourg. How does it work exactly?
MathCityMap was presented by Gregor Milicic from the MCM team Frankfurt at the conference “Pedagogical Innovations in STEAM Education Conference” in Linz in January. My colleague Ben Haas and I found the project directly interesting. When we were forced to change our evaluation because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to work out an MCM trail in groups of 2-3 students with subsequent self-evaluation and peer-review of 3 trails from other students.
You have also created some sample tasks . Please describe your task “Window”. How can it be solved? What is the aim of this task?
The task is to determine the number of square windows of a glass lift tower. On one side there are 2 rows of 12 windows each. Only 3 sides are made of glass; the fourth side is the school building. According to this there are 3 ⋅ 2 ⋅ 12 = 72 square windows. The task can be solved by all pupils from class 3 on. The aim is for the children to recognise the patterns and use multiplicative structures instead of simply counting all the windows.
Do you have any further comments on MCM?
MCM has managed to transfer an old idea (mathematical trails) into today’s digital age. A connection to AR (e.g. GeoGebra 3D Calculator) would be very useful from my experience, as many students have planned such tasks.
More information about the use of MathCityMap in Luxembourg:
