Multi-Cultural Mathematics
This list provides links to a number of resources on the eLibrary in which mathematics from other cultures is highlighted.
School Fair / Festivals
The Festivals part of this resource contains a number of excellent resources using mathematics in other cultures.
Patterns from India: looking at, and making, Rangoli patterns.
The 12 days of Christmas: calculating the number of presents sent in a Jamaican version of the song.
Angels: constructing and making angels.
Menorahs: a puzzle to find the number of candles used in a Menorah during the Jewish festival of Hannukah.
The Star of David: exploring polygons to make a Star of David.
Chinese New Year: solving riddles to discover which Chinese year people are born
People Patterns / Cultures Count
People Patterns includes
Islamic art - considers the structure and symmetry of Islamic designs using circles, squares and hexagons to make patterns
Knotwork - students design Celtic knots and patterns with crossings
Patchwork - students investigate the ‘Log Cabin’ method of patch-working, and describe the symmetry of Amish quilt design
Games from around the world - students consider the different strategies used when playing a number of games including ‘Three in a row’, ‘Tick tack toe’, ‘Pong hau k’i’, ‘Nim’, and ‘Dipping games’
Continuous patterns - students consider the structure of different patterns including Tchokwe pictograms from North East Angola and Tamil designs made from one continuous movement
The Chinese triangle - students explore the patterns contained in the Chinese triangle, often known as Pascal’s triangle, and use this to consider combinations
Cultures Count includes
The ancient Egyptians - considers the symbols Egyptians used for counting, using formulae to explore various area problems including the area of a circle. Egyptian multiplication is also considered
Babylonian beginnings - considers the symbols used for counting and a method of finding square roots
Some ancient Greek ideas - students use similar triangles to find heights, consider Eratosthenes’ calculation of the circumference of the Earth; and Euclid’s work to explain how to expand brackets
Chinese calculations - students explore magic squares and use a Chinese abacus to perform calculations
Early Hindu mathematics - considers Hindu numerals, Roman numerals and a method of grid multiplication from India
Have You Got an Activity for...?
The first section of the book contains:
• Involving fractions: Egyptian fractions, fraction pairs, fraction flow charts
Multiplication Makes Sense
Includes a section about Russian Mutiplication.
Vedic Maths 1
The Tiling from the square worksheet two also involves them in working with reflection. This topic and Vedic maths two explore the ancient laws of Vedic mathematics which features in both Hindu and Islamic contemporary cultures.
Vedic Maths 2
This set of Cre8ate maths activities requires pupils to practice number operations, to search for pattern in number and to work and deepen with their arithmetic understandings.
In Vedic multiplication, these understandings are developed into simple algebra. This topic follows on from Vedic maths one and explores the ancient laws of Vedic mathematics which feature in both Hindu and Islamic contemporary cultures.