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Getting kids to think about and experiment with graph coloring is probably a more reasonable and productive goal than trying to have a "meaningful discussion" a

by Rusky 11y ago

Getting kids to think about and experiment with graph coloring is probably a more reasonable and productive goal than trying to have a "meaningful discussion" about it with kindergarteners. It's certainly not something that stood out as ridiculous to me.

aaron695 11y ago
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/five/mathematics.html http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/five/math... "At age five, some children may still be gaining an understanding of the number words up to "four" (e.g., distinguishes one-four items from "many"; can identify collections of up to four items with a corresponding number; asks for up to "four" of something; knows age; can put out "one," "two," "three," or "four" items upon request)." So rather than setting a childs education backward and depress them with abstracts before nouns, when I read about it and understood the question at age 10 is was kinda a cool and interesting problem. That's if you want to take the ages and article seriously, which the OP was asking if the original was. It being more a thought piece I suspect.
baldfat 11y ago
I work for Head Start and we actually have "meaningful" conversations with children about what interest them. Making math, engineering or science "interesting" is very natural for child. The hardest part is getting adults to think through those lens and break them down into simple interconnecting ideas to the child's world and help them learn new vocabulary. Kids are natural learners.
viraptor 11y ago
I think I didn't use the right phrase. I was thinking of something more general than discussion - meaningful interaction? But the main point was that I don't think those kids would understand map colouring as something beyond map colouring. It's just trivia - you can do it with 4 colours. A huge majority of people of any age doesn't know why that fact is in any way significant. On the other hand if anyone wants to prove me wrong about kindergarten kids, I'd be glad to hear that.
- lkozma 11y ago
  I thought that example was quite nice, and it might work with kindergarten kids. It has to be kept easy and not overwhelming, though. I'd do it like this: First take some simpler map that can be 3-colored and ask the child to 3-color it. Make sure it is always correct (no neighbors have the same color). Then give a simple map that cannot be 3-colored. Let the child try it for a while, try arguing together or let them try to argue why it is not possible. Maybe even start with 2-colorable first, and move up slowly to 3 and then to 4. Mentioning that 4 always works is optional. Depending on the child's patience, they can even try coming up with the 3-counterexample themselves. It can be a back-and-forth of challenges and solutions between the child and adult.

by Rusky 11y ago

aaron695 11y ago

http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/five/mathematics.html http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/five/math... "At age five, some children may still be gaining an understanding of the number words up to "four" (e.g., distinguishes one-four items from "many"; can identify collections of up to four items with a corresponding number; asks for up to "four" of something; knows age; can put out "one," "two," "three," or "four" items upon request)." So rather than setting a childs education backward and depress them with abstracts before nouns, when I read about it and understood the question at age 10 is was kinda a cool and interesting problem. That's if you want to take the ages and article seriously, which the OP was asking if the original was. It being more a thought piece I suspect.

baldfat 11y ago

I work for Head Start and we actually have "meaningful" conversations with children about what interest them. Making math, engineering or science "interesting" is very natural for child. The hardest part is getting adults to think through those lens and break them down into simple interconnecting ideas to the child's world and help them learn new vocabulary. Kids are natural learners.

viraptor 11y ago

I think I didn't use the right phrase. I was thinking of something more general than discussion - meaningful interaction? But the main point was that I don't think those kids would understand map colouring as something beyond map colouring. It's just trivia - you can do it with 4 colours. A huge majority of people of any age doesn't know why that fact is in any way significant. On the other hand if anyone wants to prove me wrong about kindergarten kids, I'd be glad to hear that.

lkozma 11y ago
I thought that example was quite nice, and it might work with kindergarten kids. It has to be kept easy and not overwhelming, though. I'd do it like this: First take some simpler map that can be 3-colored and ask the child to 3-color it. Make sure it is always correct (no neighbors have the same color). Then give a simple map that cannot be 3-colored. Let the child try it for a while, try arguing together or let them try to argue why it is not possible. Maybe even start with 2-colorable first, and move up slowly to 3 and then to 4. Mentioning that 4 always works is optional. Depending on the child's patience, they can even try coming up with the 3-counterexample themselves. It can be a back-and-forth of challenges and solutions between the child and adult.