Equations 1 eval

Numbers may be the most identifiable aspect of maths but calculations are the advance that created the discipline.
To focus on memorising or understanding is useful but how would it be to start with exploration.
Most explorers were able to evaluate the calculations we used but calculators were on hand for the others or for checking.
There were implied questions set up at each stage.  The first was what is the pattern?  What type of calculations produce negative numbers or decimals/fractions? Many explorers skipped this part of the activity and just found cards, brought them to the table and didn't think much more about it.  The activity would have benefited from more focus on the working out an answer and categorising.  I think that posting the calculations into a box of some kind might have helped raise the profile of that part of the activity and make it worth a child's mental activity. This was set up as an observation but it was still a useful thing to do at this stage in the course.

A recap of that activity and a new way to explore those patterns would be good at some point.  Perhaps revisit that activity in the last session.

 My aims were to get our explorers to see fairly specific things and I set activities up to support that aim.  This works to a degree but it is not really exploration.  It is far more like exploration training.
The model for this session was 1) Find calculations on cards, 2) find an answer for the calculation, 3) categorise the calculations by a type.
We started looking at ways of representing the calculations that we found.  Again, this was a bit too contrived and lost meaning or at least took on a personal meaning for me. It needed to be more about meaning that the explorers give it and discussing and sharing that.

There were some successes in terms of getting some of them used to the numbers on Cuisenaire rods and even build up to showing and understanding number relationships.

If you are set on exploration, you must accept that nothing may be found.  I don't know if I am ready to accept that or if I set the scene for an appropriate or manageable level of exploration. That would be a good thing to try to find out on this course.