Fireflies & Circuits at St. Andrews PS, TDSB
Based on the classroom work of Hager Awara, Iain Brodie, Bal Punia & Bronna Silver – at St Andrews PS, TDSB
Thank you to Janette Hughes (UOIT) and her team for the classroom support and tech resources!
Supported by the Computational Modelling Community of Practice of the Math Knowledge Network (mathnetwork.ca) and the EduApps project funded by the Ontario Research Fund: Research Excellence (eduapps.ca).
What math can happen with LEDs, batteries and conductive tape?
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FIREFLIES – Grade 2 students with Grade 7 buddies
Using LEDs connected to 3V batteries, and scrunched inside balls of plastic food wrap, Grade 2 students, with the help of their Grade 7 buddies, made fireflies.
Using LEDs connected to 3V batteries, and scrunched inside balls of plastic food wrap, Grade 2 students, with the help of their Grade 7 buddies, made fireflies.
EXTENSION #1 – What geometric shapes and figures can you make?
What 2-D shapes and 3-D figures can you make with:
- 1 firefly?
- 2 fireflies?
- 3 fireflies?
- 4 fireflies
- 5 fireflies?
EXTENSION #2 – What math happens when you rotate and reflect shapes?
Explore rotations and reflections of shapes at http://mathsurprise.ca/apps/sym/rotation-reflection
Explore bumper symmetries at http://mathsurprise.ca/apps/sym/bumper-squares
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CIRCUITS –Grade 7 students
Using LEDs connected to 3V batteries with conductive tape, Grade 7 students made circuits.
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EXTENSION – Circuits, Gates, Boolean Algebra and Sets/Subsets of Numbers
Example 1
A simple (series) circuit with 2 switches is also an AND gate used by smart devices to make decisions. For example:
If the smartphone alarm is set to 7 am AND it is 7 AM then activate the alarm.
Example 2
The math used to make these decisions is called Boolean Algebra. Here is a math example:
I’m thinking of a number that is divisible by 2 AND by 3. Which number could it be?
Explore with a math + coding app
Explore sets and subsets on a number grid at http://eduapps.ca/ai/sets
