What are some fun/interesting Maths/Science concepts for a ks4 ready 4yo?

[RoboJesus]

We got some UKMT material that DC has been interested in recently. DC's also been reading up on string theory as of late. Just wondering what I could present next to see if DC would bite

[JustRichmal]

Use isosceles triangles find proofs for the circle theories.
Work out a proof for the Sine and Cosine rules by themselves.
Work out a formula for the internal angles of any regular polygon.

[brizzledrizzle]

Just do fun science stuff - make volcanoes erupt, do gravity experiments - get an egg from the first floor window to the patio without it breaking, things like that.

They are 4, getting them to do GCSE stuff is not what a 4 year old should be doing - let them enjoy being a child.

[user789653241]

nrich.maths.org/secondary

wild.maths.org/

mathigon.org/courses#intermediate

[JustRichmal]

I do agree, but the OP is obviously wanting to teach her child maths and has already covered KS3 with dc. I think giving them things to think about and discover for themselves will be better than just teaching more. I would urge balancing it with plenty of social and physical play, but I cannot dictate how others should bring up their children. There are plenty of examples of children whose parents have schooled them in one specific subject from an early age who went on to success in adulthood.
Science, sport and music has many such examples.

[user789653241]

artofproblemsolving.com/

www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse/playlists

[RoboJesus]

JustRichmal DC has already done those

[RoboJesus]

brizzledrizzle whilst those are fun it's not something DC can really go further in to

[sirfredfredgeorge]

RoboJesus Of course they can, there are so many ways to get an egg from the first floor to the ground, you can add all sorts of different constraints, you can test and evaluate different materials, it is a very open-ended engineering problem.

It is also the kind of simplistic tick box engineering problem that is easily solved if you have given constraints, but once you've solved it through simple padding, and calculated the forces involved, you can change the materials and use that to find out information about the materials. Or you can switch to destructive vs non-destructive devices - ie padding generally only drops one egg, we want a re-usable device. Or you can switch to slowing the descent rate with parachutes and how much you need to slow it by, what is the terminal velocity of the contraption etc.

A KS4 student is not ready to make interesting discoveries about String Theory, so whilst they can read about it, they're just learning from others. A much more valuable skill is learning to solve your own things, because eventually the genius is going to run into problems others haven't already solved, which is why JustRichmal's maths is about solving it rather than reading about other solutions.

If your child has already done JustRichmal's things just have them do whatever they want to do next, just carry on teaching themselves maths and stop pushing problems on to them, they are already at the level where they need to learn themselves and not be fed.

[RoboJesus]

Youve completely missed the point. Just don't worry about it

[moominmomma1234]

you probably already heard of the brilliant royal institute Christmas lectures aimed at kids. On youtube there are more lectures that the RI do during the year0 these seem to me to be more in-depth than the xmas lectures. my 10yr old watched one called 4dimensional shapes in 3d by matt Parker.
it went totally over my head- altho I do now know what a mobius loop is! my 10yr old enjoyed it-esp how to tie your shoelaces mathematically, altho he still didn't understand all of it. Its something to do with knot theory so I thought might compliment your string theory!!

[JustRichmal]

Here is a puzzle combining maths and physics at string theory level. What number pattern do numbers of elements in each row of the periodic table follow. (So in the first row there are 2, in the second row,8 etc.) and why from Shrodinger might we expect this to be the case?

[Clairetree1]

DC's also been reading up on string theory as of late.

concentrating on relativity andquantum mechanics is quite a good idea.

primary age minds are very receptive to these ideas, although we don't teach them in schools, and when older children and young adults learn about these things later, they feel very counter intuitive and hard to understand.

i have yet to meet an infant age child that can't quickly and easily grasp relativity.

There are quite a few books aimed at explaining relativity to young children.

Quantum mechanics is the other area which is similarly more suited to little minds, rather than older, more developed ones

[Clairetree1]

brizzledrizzle whilst those are fun it's not something DC can really go further in to

what is preventing your child going further into these things? The possibilities are more or less limitless.

[MrsTeach]

I'm sure you're doing this already but I would just suggest making sure all learnt knowledge is able to be practiced/tested out.
Doing things like explaining a process to someone else or creating an experiment to prove something will ensure and solidify understanding.
Also have you looked at places like BBC bitesize for activities?

[SirHubzALot]

Space Physics! Go into The Big Bang and evidence for this such as Doppler effect and redshift. Show expanding universe by blowing a balloon up. Great way to get some maths into there as well by using standard form to show scale of space etc. Standard form is also massive on the new Science GCSE so beneficial to learn it now. Also look at nuclear fusion and life cycle of stars too.

[Clairetree1]

Space Physics! Go into The Big Bang and evidence for this such as Doppler effect and redshift. Show expanding universe by blowing a balloon up. Great way to get some maths into there as well by using standard form to show scale of space etc. Standard form is also massive on the new Science GCSE so beneficial to learn it now. Also look at nuclear fusion and life cycle of stars too.

most of this will already have been covered, its very basic

[Clairetree1]

OP, thinking more about what you said about your child not being able to go further into things like the physics experiments suggested, I wonder if they have difficulties with imagination and original thinking?

very few children would be unable to take these experiments further!

Do you think they are maybe concentrating on quite an unbalanced range of activities, and is there a reason for that?

For example, are you good at maths yourself, and more encouraging in that area?

It may be best for your child, if they are developing good mathematical understanding, but are much more limited in imagination and original thinking, to spend less time on maths and science, and more on the arts?

then you might find they are better able to think about how to take such experiments further, a few years down the line, when their abilities in that type of thinking have caught up.

[SirHubzALot]

most of this will already have been covered, its very basic

It's hardly basic when it has been removed from the GCSE curriculum apart from higher tier Separate Science Physics.

Besides, you can make most topics as basic or complex as you wish which is precisely how we differentiate content in schools. If OP is looking for learning that will engage and also give a solid base for GCSE then what I have suggested is suitable.

[Clairetree1]

It's hardly basic when it has been removed from the GCSE curriculum apart from higher tier Separate Science Physics.

we cover it in year 7, but find most children have covered it at primary school

I think lack of resources means many of the science topics covered at primary are theoretical

[Clairetree1]

it really hasn't been removed from the GCSE spec, its in the foundation combined

[drspouse]

My 6yo is not G&T though loves science and is able to discuss and try out different ways to protect an egg while dropping.
I am sure your DC will be able to go much further so I'm not sure why you say they can't.
Also what about coding, biology, chemistry - lots of ways to use Maths in those.

[Clairetree1]

it really hasn't been removed from the GCSE spec, its in the foundation combined

well, maybe not life cycle of a star, but I think that is becasue it has been moved down to KS3. We don't spend long on it tbh, maybe about half an hour

[Clairetree1]

OP, is your child starting school in September? That will keep them busy!

[SirHubzALot]

The thing with Science education is that is there are two often distinct branches of it.

Do you want to engage your DC with understanding complex concepts which is often just learning about the discoveries of others. This is what we often do in the classroom.

Or do you want to develop them as independent scientific thinkers and develop their skills in thinking creatively, designing experiments, collecting data etc? With this, the sky really is the limit.

[Clairetree1]

Or do you want to develop them as independent scientific thinkers and develop their skills in thinking creatively, designing experiments, collecting data etc? With this, the sky really is the limit.

the OPs child doesn't seem to have any particular ability or interest in this type of scientific thinking, from what she has said.