Telling Equation Stories with Comics

Algebra can get pretty abstract, but I find most kids can get their teeth into a good equation. "What number, if I add 8 to it, gives me 12?" No worries.

When we get to "word problems", when things could get interesting, they tend to get a bit dry instead. Kids have great imaginations, but instead of drawing on that amazing resource, we feed them boring textbook exercises or worksheets. Let's have some fun instead.

Last year with my lovely year 7s, we turned our imaginations to making movies about equations. With year 9 this year, we turned to comics.

Some free online comic generators to use for your lesson:

Marvel Kids - limited characters and a set of props that don't seem to fit your standard superhero story, but a great set of layouts and you can add pages as you go, so you don't need to know an exact plan when you start.

Make Beliefs - a nice simple one, with some cute animal characters and mutliple language options.

Comic Master - Loads of options for layout, backgrounds and characters.

How to use the comic generators in your equations lesson:

• Brainstorm and work through examples together. Put an equation on the board and talk about what situation it could represent.

• Get students to have a plan before they start, but not too strict a plan. Working with the comic generators will give students more ideas and they need to be ready to go where the creativity takes them, but they do need to have some ideas so they have direction.

• Leave more time than you expect. I always forget this one!

• Demonstrate how to start with whichever technology you choose to use. I showed the class how to get started on a few sites. It was putting random things into the Marvel Kids one that inspired my story about the Hulk smashing lamps.

I may have had too much fun with this one!

What mathematics topics do you think lend themselves to creating comics?

Making Shapes Puppets

Earlier I mentioned the start of the Shapes Puppet Show idea. We are making good progress. Song lyrics are written (courtesy of their music teacher) and we have focused our making on the shapes needed for the songs, and a few extra cool ones to be judges on "Which Shape's Got Talent?".

I beleive this character is performing "I'm Hexy and I know it".

Sadly there is no song for the dodecahedron. But he is very good at eating other puppets. Perhaps he'll be a judge.

Starting with cardboard bodies, we have been adding coloured paper and fabric to give them a stylish look. It's amazing what some cute eyes will suddenly do for a puppet.

 Aren't they just adorable?

A lot of songs feature cubes.

We've had lots of discussions about different ways to make the puppet best represent the shape, especially for 2D shapes. The two paths seem to be to either keep it in 2D or make it into a prism, where the front face is the 2D shape of the character.

This circle is really a cylinder, but with the outer sides covered in black the focus is kept on the circle of the face.

This square, on the other hand, is kept as 2D as possible and controlled using sticks from below.

This fellow was originally Sherlock Cones. Can't remember his name now. Coney McSomething I think.

 

Today they were mostly finished so we paraded around a small section of the school showing them off to some teachers and senior maths classes we found. I think they are something to be proud of.

A Shapes Puppet Show

I was browsing through MathsLinks and got a bit of inspiration from this little Sesame Street clip:



I love the little triangle muppet. It made me think that my year 7 class (who are a very creative bunch) could write a little puppet show about shapes, make some puppets, and maybe perform it for some of our local primary school kids.

I decided to make a demo puppet to show them my idea. Here he is:

More about making him on my craft blog, Jupiter Hollow.

The kids are really keen on the idea and we have brainstormed a lot of possibilities, most of which include a lot of puns. I've roped in their music teacher to help with the music side of things, and they have lots of ideas for songs.

We've also started making puppets. For the kids, we started with cardboard and made nets, which we are then going to cover with fabric. Here's one that I did, I call him "Tetrahedron Puppy".

More photos and info to come as the project proceeds.