20 Maths Investigations to do at Home

Maths need not be a chore at home, which is something we often hear.

Numbers are all around us in what we do, yet we often miss out on the opportunities to embrace them and turn them into a fun learning experience for adults as well as children.

Here’s just a few ideas to try at home, great investigations that can be used as prompts for further and deeper investigations.

Think of it as “Maths without doing maths"!!

· Record/watch/screenshot the weather forecast on tv, your device or the newspaper. Discuss all the ways numbers are used. What are they telling us? Compare numbers for different cities and countries. Look for patterns, extremes, absurdities and oddities. What numbers or info are we unsure about? Compare the results from different days, what changes can you see happening? Place these numbers on maps to give more info as to how the location adds to the info they give us.

· Look for barcodes in your home. Where do you find them? Do they all look the same? Can you see patterns on barcodes from the same/different shops? Different items? Do the numbers tell us different information?

· Go to the website of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Type in the info you’d like to explore. Lots of maps and graphs to examine here.

· Remote control devices. Compare the different ones in your home. What do the numbers do? Can the buttons do more than one thing? Do all remotes have numbers? Do any have no numbers?

· Do you have any sport rosters or timetables? Look at the dates, times and number of events. Are there patterns to help read them? How do they differ from day to day? Reasons? What do your bus timetables look like?

· Socks. They come in pairs. Are yours still in pairs? Estimate how many complete pairs there are in your house, then check. How many left over socks? Can you make new pairs? Who has the most pairs? Sport or work socks?

· Junk Mail – Check out various brochures. Are some shops selling the same/similar items? Who has the best specials or value for money? How does percentage work? Is it a good way to advertise specials? Why is percentage used instead of the price at times?

· Our ages. How old is each member of your family? Include your pets! How old will each of you be in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Can you see patterns emerging?

· Fractions. Where, When and Why are fraction terms used in your home? Spoken? In print? Both? When do you need these measurements to be accurate, and when is it okay to just estimate/guess?

· Weird and Wonderful. What are the strangest ways that you see numbers being used in your home? Are there places where you would not expect to find numbers? What is the most interesting way that numbers are being used? Eg 12 holes in my dog’s collar, 3 bells on the cat’s collar

· Using dice. Can you think of ways to use a die to make things more fun at home? Eg Cleaning your room, doing the dishes, choosing a tv show etc.

· TV Guide. This has numbers everywhere. Which numbers are the most important for you? Other family members? Are there some numbers that are vital, and others that are not? Could some numbers be left out and it wouldn’t matter at all?

· Quantities. Find an unopened box, bag or container of something. Eg Fruit Loops, Pasta shells, frozen peas etc. Estimate how many items are in the container. How did you come to that estimation? Would it be the same for a similar container of the same item? Eg Do both bags of spaghetti have the same amount? How did you organise your counting? Did you count by 1’s?

· Calendars. Can you identify patterns with the layout of the numbers? Can you match certain numbers with certain events? Which ones occur the most? Least? Shade them in colours for each category. Does it create a visual pattern? Which numbers do not create a pattern?

· Choose a number. Any number. Eg 9 How many ways is it used in your home, not just written. Eg Something might weigh 9 grams, 9 kilograms. Something might be 9mm in length, 9cm or 9m. Number Bingo – Write down 9 numbers in a grid, how long does it take you to find each of these numbers in your home? Do a written version, and then a version where the numbers are not written on the object. Over a week, can you get the set of numbers 0-100?

· Look at some of your board games. How are numbers used in the scoring? Are they used in different ways? Are the ways that they are used fair? How would you change the scores?

· Clothes. What are the numbers telling you? What numbers give you the info you need the most? Least? What range of numbers are on your clothes?

· Shopping dockets/receipts. What sorts of information are recorded on them? How is it organised? What categories could each set of numbers be placed under? Where are the numbers placed? What numbers tell you the most? Least? Which ones do you think could be left off?

· Place a number somewhere in the house on an object. Eg Put the number 3 on the shower door. Others have to work out the reason for the number on that object. (Have a 3 minute shower) Try not to be too obscure. Turn it into a game of Family Bingo.

· Which numbers are used most each day in your house? Each time you refer to or use a number, write it down. Eg 2.00 on the microwave, 20 secs for washing my hands, pressing Ch 9 on the remote, pressing the code on the door, etc. Is it the same every day? Is it the same for each person? Why do some family members use a certain number more than other family members use it?

As with most things, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I’m hearing lots from parents that they do not understand the maths that their children are doing at home, so perhaps these activities will bridge that gap a little and have parents and children having fun doing maths together.