Math Madness Summary

The article Math Madness: Coloring, Reasoning, and Celebrating, discusses how important it is to include math activities that are challenging, but also fun in the classroom. The article was written by Nicholas Wasswerman and is based on what he saw in his daughter’s classroom. He noticed that the school had publishing parties and other elaborate projects for certain subjects but lacked “anything remotely comparable in mathematics” (Wasserman 469). This is when he decided to step in and Math Madness was created. The article first discusses how Wasswerman and his daughter’s teacher went about making the criteria for math madness. They knew that they wanted it to be a project that lasted for several days and that resulted in a product that parents could interact with and explore. However, they also wanted the project to be enjoyable and to include some math topics that the students had already learned about. They finally landed on creating Math Madness-a project that would
introduce students to graph theory. Wasserman and the teacher knew that the students would be able to be successful at this more advanced math concept as long as they were having fun while learning. They also decided on this topic as it would be something that could also be challenging for the parents. Finally, the project met several standards that the students were supposed to address throughout the year. The article then explains that they decided to choose a simple graph theory problem-the student would have to color a graph with the fewest colors possible.
However, if two vertices of the shape were joined by an edge, they could not be the same color. After explaining what the task was, the article delves into how the task was split up into chunks. On day 1, students were put into groups and challenged to color a graph using fewer colors than their neighbor did. This strategy served to get the students engaged in the lesson, as they were now focused on the material since they wanted to beat their friends. Students practiced coloring circuit graphs, wheel graphs, complete graphs, as well as some “challenge” graphs. Due to the way the activity was set up, the students quickly understood what was expected of them and were soon performing a difficult math concept with ease. This happened so easily, as the students were engaged with one another and were having fun working on the
activity. The activity also forced the students to use their upper level thinking skills. The students soon realized that every part of the graph was connected in some way, and this made their reasoning skills more explicit. They realized that the vertices had to be different colors, as the entire graph was connected. On the second day, students began to discuss the patterns they had seen in the different types of graphs and eventually came to the conclusion that graphs with an even number of vertices required two colors, whereas an odd number of vertices signaled the use of three colors. This led to an in-depth discussion on why this happened. Thus, the activity forced the students to use their critical thinking skills. On the third day, students were required to make two graphs that their parents would then complete the next day. This part of the project allowed the students to show their creativity, and graphs ranged from reasonable sized ones, to huge and very complicated graphs. Finally, on the last day, the parents came and the goal of creating an interactive math activity was achieved. The parents and students were both engaged in the activity and everyone was enjoying participating. Overall, this activity created several results. First, it led to an awareness that more complicated mathematical concepts-such as graph theory, should be included in elementary schools. It also showed that creating a sense of enjoyment about math is as important as teaching the concepts. Finally, assignments like this not only introduce new concepts, they also help reinforce concepts that the students have already learned about. In conclusion, the article emphasizes how much students can learn if the activities they are doing seem fun to them.