Classroom Activity: Math Selfie Treasure Hunt - by Axelle Faughn

One common concern when teaching mathematics is to provide relevance to the "real world" and to answer the recurring question "When am I ever going to use this?". Meeting this need can be addressed through activities that pertain to any of the following three categories:

• Math in the Student’s World of the Future:  Someday I’ll need math in my job as a _________.
• Math in the Student’s World of the Classroom:  My teacher is having us do this activity where we use some application of math.
• Math in the Student’s World of Now:  What does that mathematical concept, technique or definition look like?

By using mathematical selfies in the classroom we are clearly concerned with the latter. Not only do we explore mathematics in the student's world, but we use modes of communication prevalent in social media through "pictures & quotes", attempting to convey big ideas in a snapshot. In this post I describe some of the ways that we have used selfies with our students, and I invite comments on other possible activities that can be conducted in or outside of the classroom.

1. Mathematical Definitions Portfolio

Both Kathy and I used this one in geometry class, so students would create a book of definitions including every new term introduced in class. Without a common language and clear definitions of concepts, one would not be able to communicate in the math classroom. In order for ideas to be shared and understood students have to master the basic rules of syntax and discourse that are specific to the topic of study. Students were instructed to provide the standard definition of the term, along with a picture illustrating the concepts and an explanation for why the particular representation was an appropriate visual example.
Here is a possible entry from one student's portfolio, as an illustration that would accompany the more standard euclidean definition of two distinct lines that are always the same distance apart and never intersect. But why do blinds need to be parallel? Well... apart from considerations of appropriately directing or blocking light, we've all seen the mess it creates when they choose not to be!

2. Mathematical Selfies Treasure Hunt

This activity is very engaging and we have used it both with our students and for conference workshops. Here are the directions for conducting a Math Selfies Treasure Hunt:

Based on a set of mathematical topics, terms, concepts, or techniques, find photo opportunities using the ever available phone (including yourself is fun!) to illustrate what a particular mathematical item means to you or how you understand it. Collect all of the photos for each item for display... Ready, Set, Go!

* Find a team of 2 to 4, making sure you have at least one cell-phone or Ipad per team

* Choose a category:  Number sense, Geometry, Function (and you can certainly add others)

* Find and photograph an example of each concept, technique, or term on your list of mathematical treasures. Sample lists and submission examples are shown below.

* Email/upload photos to [include email address or link to goosechase.com] with a short title that identifies your mathematical selfie

Number Sense Selfie Hunt List

1.     Illustrate place value or base 10 notation

2.     Illustrate the Concept of number operations

3.     Illustrate Properties of number operations

4.     Illustrate the concepts of measurements and units

Sequence 1, 3, 5: skip-counting

5.     Illustrate geometric thinking

6.     Illustrate a number line

7.     Proportional reasoning

8.     Definition of Fractions

9.     Illustrate concept of fraction operations

10.  Decimal

11.  Percents

12.  Illustrate types of numbers
(whole numbers, integers,
rational, irrational, real)

Function Selfie Hunt List

1.     Illustrate geometric thinking

Not a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but a Tangent on the Beach
(courtesy of Emmanuelle Forgeoux)

2.     Illustrate the definition of a function

3.     Illustrate the notion of asymptote

4.     Linear Function Selfie

5.     Quadratic Function Selfie 

6.     Exponential Function Selfie

7.     Trigonometric Function Selfie

8.     Tangent line Selfie

9.     Concavity Selfie

10.  Illustrate Function Transformation

11.  Illustrate Inverse Function

12.  Illustrate Composition of functions

13. Illustrate Step wise functions

Upcoming activities which are still under development and will be described later in this blog include fitting an equation to a selfie using one of the commonly used geometry software, as well as organizing mathematical selfies exhibits for broader community involvement (think your school, the local library, coffee shops... etc).

Finally, other activities which we have not tried yet but were strongly suggested to us involve getting student mentors from older grades to work on mathematical selfies projects with the younger grades, therefore building a mathematical selfies community within the school, establishing communication and sharing of ideas. And last but not least, to build relevance to future uses of mathematics one can imagine tying a math selfies hunt to particular jobs that students have expressed an interest in, emphasizing the connection between mathematics and any potential future profession.