Y5 h/w:'Research a famous mathematician': poster/powerpoint/article- 2 hrs work.. Who?

[ampere]

Can any of you clever lot come up with a suitable mathematician DS can research? He could only think of Isaac Newton, which is OK, but can you think of any others?

My year 5s would have no problem - the nature of the curriculum means they are very used to this kind of task and get lots out of it. I thought your comments regarding reading levels and understanding show a wild underestimation of the kinds of things year 5 children achieve on an every day level - it really is a bread and butter task for most y5s, inside the classroom anyway.

And they are taught through the ICT curriculum how not to rely on cut and paste and to check their sources.

Anyhoo... Galois, Gauss, Godel or Euler are the greatest mathematicians.

And Bertrand Russell is v interesting

How about this series of books OP, designed and written specifically for upper KS2, packed with excellent explanations, and discussing the work of Plato, Euclid, Pythagoras, Fibonacci, and all the others suggested.

www.murderousmaths.co.uk/

Nah, they'd never understand the reading matter in a million years, Goblinchild - waaaaaay beyond them

Maybe that's why we get so many queries about levels and methods of teaching maths and such.
The children find it less confusing, but older and less flexible brains struggle a bit.

It's funny that so many posters evidently think that we overestimate their abilities - when we see what children of that age can do, day in, day out! Must be seeing things in my old age.

Oh it was Murderous Maths I meant when I said Wicked! I knew it was something like that.
I think that there's a handful of subjects whose work a yr 5 could sort of understand (in the very broadest terms)
Nightingale, Turing, Babbage, Pythagoras, Pascal, Archimedes even Godel or Russell at a pinch, and then there's the ones where they would just learn about the story of their lives and the cool stuff they got up to (Galois, Euler, Newton as a mathematician) Opinions might vary about who falls into each camp, but the research and presentation skills, the historical
background and the sense of maths as an evolving story are useful even where all you can say about the maths itself is "he invented a whole new branch of maths that people are still working on today."

It's funny that so many posters evidently think that we overestimate their abilities - when we see what children of that age can do, day in, day out! Must be seeing things in my old age.

It's even funnier when you read the number of threads on mumsnet where parents complain that their child is bored because schools fail to provide challenging work

has anyone mentioned Descartes ?

Cartesian geometry is a mainstay of maths and a necessary precursor to what Newton worked on.

this list may give some inspiration too.

teachers are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't...Thats always been my experience! [hgrin] And everyone has an opinion on how we can do the job better. I don't think i've ever told an electrician that his/her wiring is not challenging enough or a bus driver that it was always driven so much better in my day. [hhmm]

However...given all of this.....what mathematician have you decided to go with ampere

ColdComfortFarm Tue 26-Oct-10 20:07:56
"If this nine or ten year old child cannot think of or reserach a mathematician on his own without his mum's intervention, then I doubt he could research or produce a caluable powerpoint presentation on one without 'help' either."

My tutor suggested the person I should study for my PhD. I hope you don't think he wrote the thesis.

fwiw I am not a teacher, but I have found that these "research a person/feature/historical event" have taught my dd almost more than any other aspect of her school life. And no, I have never done her work for her. But would be happy to suggest a person/event- in fact, the teacher often provides a list to choose from; "coming up with the person" is not a necessary part of this learning process- finding out about them and organising your data into a readable text is.

But research, in the sense that real people do it in the real world, (scientists, PhDs, journalists, but also just people in their everyday jobs and lives etc...) means making sense of data for a purpose. i.e. working out the answer to something, testing a hypothesis, figuring out the best solution.

These kind of projects that just say 'find out about x and present it' look like kids are doing research but they aren't. They are looking through a mass of data and picking out the bits that they can understand, or that look interesting. That's not research (try using that method if you are researching to answer a question, it just doesn't work).

By picking a 'hard' topic like advanced mathematicians it looks like they are being stretched, but because they have no framework to evaluate the data they are looking at (and no particular question to answer)they are just going through the motions. Its like teaching kids football and forgetting to mention the bit about scoring goals.

I wish teachers wouldn't give this type of homework. It works on the assumption everyone has the internet and Powerpoint and a printer that has a full colour ink cartridge which gets half used printing off copies before everything is in place and the final copy is printed.

Feenie says above this is a bread and butter task for most yr 5s (I think she's talking about the poster) so why give it for homework? It is honestly the most stressful homework for parents because it is such a palaver - and costly with the ink, and it penalises whoever doesn't have the technology at home. And it doesn't teach and awful lot. I get the point about ICT and speaking in public and a bit of history but most kids can do the ICT part in their sleep. I know for my DS it just meant a chunk of his evening was spent cobbling something together without feeling he'd got anything out of it.

Hiyamaya the subject of the homework isn't advanced mathematicians it is a famous mathematician. The child has to find out a few interesting facts and present them to his class. No one is expecting a thesis
I suggested Fibonacci so here is a perfectly adequate site for a Y5 child...
www.mathematicianspictures.com/FIBONACCI/Fibonacci.htm

or this
www.gradeamathhelp.com/famous-math-people.html

or this

women mathematicians

or this

math.about.com/od/mathematicians/a/fibonacci.htm

all in language primary aged children can understand

DCs always ask me who to do for this type of project, I usually give them a list and then they ignore it and go on to do someone else
This type of project is as easy or as hard as one needs to make it.

This is very normal year 6/7 homework Hiyamaya, nobody is expecting a full dessertation from a year 5. You don't know what they will have covered in class either

All some will come up with is he/she was born, he/she discovered, he/she died and struggle to do that whereas others will be able to give a lot more detail. We found Richard Hammonds
Can You Feel the Force?: Putting the Fizz Back into Physics, very good for Isaac Newton.

It's a half term project, so children can use the local libraries IT facilities.
I've never had a child print a copy of their powerpoint, they put it on a memory stick and we show them on the IWB, then save them into their individual school file, so there's a permanent record.
IT is a core subject in the curriculum.

Tabliope for many schools it is half term so children who do not have the internet at home could visit the library or use reference books. If the school isn't off for half term they will usually provide computer time for children who need it at breaks or lunchtime

Goblinchild - so you have to go out and buy a memory stick? Not all schools work like that - my DS's primary didn't. Or spend time down the library in half term - not all of us have the luxury of fitting that in.

It's a lot of effort for very little value added imo.

Your children don't visit the library?
A memory stick costs less than £5, if I had children for whom that was an issue, I'd lend them one.
If you think it's tricky now in Y5, you are totally unprepared for the demands secondary school will be making in a couple of years.

Hiyamaya you seem to be assuming teachers set homework that requires children have never been taught in school. I would imagine most children by Y5 have done this kind of work dozens of times using different foci (I used it again because people liked it last time ) for research.

Tabliope have you asked if they can do it in school or even print it out in school.
DCs are now in secondary and they have an allocation of pages they can print over a term and can pay a small amount if they want to print more than that, there are also homework clubs where they can use the pc.
Also the OP says Poster, nobody says that has to be done on a pc and printed.

Goblinchild, all I'm saying it's a pain for little reward. And no my child doesn't visit the library but he still reads loads of books. I just wish the effort required would match what you're supposed to get out of it.