As you likely know, I’m teaching this course for just these 3 weeks in January. Our subject for this time period is geometry, which is something I always enjoy. Thus far we’ve learned about 2D geometry (triangles, circles, area, units, etc) and today we’ll be starting 3D geometry (polyhedra, spheres, surface areas, volumes, etc). The optional/advanced content so far included topics like calculating the area of a fractal and visual proofs of the Pythagorean theorem and circle formulas.
Geometry can be a bit more tangible than other parts of math class: the worksheets now sometimes involved cutting things up with scissors, rolling up pieces of paper, measuring objects, etc. It’s easy to span the whole range from completely practical to abstract mathematical thinking.
We’ll finish up the course in a couple weeks with a math appreciation session on unexpected properties of cones. And then on to Math 9!