Mathematics Exhibition - Wonderful Experience

Mathematics Exhibition October 2013:

This time for our School Annual Exhibition the theme for the Mathematics Exhibition was "puzzles and games".  We experienced maximum crowd.  Parents and guest waited to explore all the games and win it.  The players who reached a certain higher level of the game was incentivized with chocolates.  The first photo is a number puzzle (probability game) called the wheel of chance designed by the students with the help of the carpenter.  Students used water colors to make it attractive. The Tower of Hanoi was made by the carpenter and painted by the students themselves. The Tower of Hanoi on the second photo was a very captivating game because the player had to move the discs from the first peg to the third peg within minimum number of moves following the condition that larger disc cannot be placed on smaller one and only one disc can be moved at a time.  The players could complete a game but found it difficult to do it within minimum number of moves. Many of them were successful with 4 discs.  A student of ninth standard stood for atleast 2 hours playing the game.  She succeeded in moving 5 discs with the minimum moves, but with 6 discs (63 moves) she struggled for one hour and at last won.  The formula for minimum number of moves is 2 raised to the power n (number of discs) minus 1. The frog jump was also interesting some what similar to the Tower of Hanoi with a difference that the frog is not allowed to move backwards.  The frogs was made by the students using clay with the help of the pottery teacher.  All these games are available online.  Go ahead and experience it online. There were few more number puzzles in the exhibition. Sudoku is also another famous logic puzzle found in newspapers.  This grid puzzle provide a strong intrinsic motivation. Sudoku puzzles are available as mobile apps.

 Why should students play these games and puzzles?
What will happen if we allow children to play in the classroom? I still remember playing the game of monopoly during my summer vacations with my family and friends.  We used to play sitting for hours before we were called for having lunch.  The board games were engaging and of educational value. I feel when children sit together to play a board game individuals come together, learn lessons and collaborate. Playing games certainly have academic benefits.
Puzzles develop hand and eye coordination and motivate the child to win the game.  We need to choose proper games which will help them in problem solving skills.  In these holidays I allowed my students to play online games through virtual classes which they enjoyed.  The students enjoyed not only playing games but made wonderful presentation on the concepts they experienced through games which I showed through a projector in the exhibition. Playing games develop positive attitudes and I have found that students show dramatic change in their attitude towards learning Maths. Nowadays students have developed passion learning using technology.  Let us encourage usage of technology in classroom and allow students to learn the way they are interested without delay.

Follow the link to see my presentation on Gamification where I have included more photos of Exhibition and presentation on the visit of Momath Museum at New York by my School students.
https://drive.google.com/a/st.niituniversity.in/file/d/0BwTmtGKgu8slVGRoUVBzMDN1WjA/edit?usp=sharing