Delta-K
Journal of the Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association
Volume 53 Issue 2, September 2016
52 – 57
Irene Percival
Editor’s note: This article is reprinted with permission from Teaching Children Mathematics 9, no 7. copyright 2003 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). All rights resen1ed. Note char illustrations that include images of identifiable minors have been removed. Minor changes have been made to spelling and punctuation in accordance with ATA style.
A visitor to Carol Pettigrew’s Grade 3 class in North Vancouver, Canada, might be forgiven for skepticism when told that a mathematics class is about to start. The children, most wearing sheets pinned around them like tunics, have their heads down on their desks. Music plays while the teacher’s voice quickly leads them back through the highlights of two millennia of history. Finally the music stops and Pettigrew announces, “And here we are, in an ancient Greek school.” Unlike other imaginary journeys that elementary students take, the main purpose of these “time-travel days” is co learn about the mathematics and mathematicians of previous ages. The children revel in the experience.
