• MAO-WM-01
• MAE-RWN-01
• MAE-RWN-02

Speaker 1

Ok mathematicians, before we get started, you'll need a pencil, your maths workbook, or some paper and your imagination.

So if you don't have those things yet, just click pause here.

Go get a pencil and your workbook and even warm up your brain if you need and come back.

OK, good job. Alright, then mathematicians, it is time to warm up our mathematical brains and our ears.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? OK, get your eyeballs and your ears ready to go for this challenge.

Here we go, listen and watch.

[Presenter claps once and one blue dot appears on the screen. They clap a second time, and a second blue dot appears. The presenter continues to clap with blue dots appearing on the screen each time, moving into dice formation. The dots continue to move after each clap until the presenter has clapped 8 times, with the screen showing 8 blue dots – 3 dots across the top, 3 dots across the bottom and one on either side between the 2 rows, with the centre space blank. The screen then goes black and the presenter continues to clap a further 5 times.]

OK mathematicians, write down how many dots you think there are. OK, and can you draw what you think my collection looks like? (clap, clap) Hm, hm, 'cause there was a clap sound for each dot as it came onto the screen.

If you need to, you can click pause and go back and listen again.

Alright, let's have a look together. Are you ready? OK? (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) Ok mathematicians, how did you go?

[Presenter claps the pattern again and blue dots appear on the screen with each clap as before. This time when the presenter claps beyond 8, the screen doesn’t go black, and the dots continue to appear and move into formation. After the 10th clap, the blue dots move into 2 rows of 5 and a blue box forms around them. Each clap after 10 appears as a red dot to the right of the blue dots. At the end of the clapping, there are 10 blue dots and 3 red dots.]

Did you hear the 13 claps? And I wonder how different your representation of 13 might have been than mine. Hmm, 'cause I have one ten and 3 more, but you might have drawn yours in heaps of different ways. I know it's amazing.

OK, let's try again but this time let's go backwards. So when you hear the claps this time it means one dot is being taken away.

Let's go. (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap).

[Presenter claps once and a red dot disappears from the screen. They clap a second time, and a second red dot disappears. The presenter continues to clap and red and blue dots disappear from the screen each time, moving into dice formation. The dots continue to disappear and move after each clap until the presenter has clapped 6 times, with the screen showing 7 blue dots remaining – 3 dots on the left, 3 dots on the right and one in between the 2 columns. The screen then goes black and the presenter continues to clap a further 4 times.]

OK, write down how many dots you think are left. And draw what you think my collection looks like. I know,

OK, let's have a look together. So we started with 13 (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap). Did you have 3?

[Presenter claps the pattern again and the red and blue dots disappear from the screen with each clap as before. This time when the presenter claps beyond 6, the screen doesn’t go black, and the dots continue to disappear and move into formation. After the last clap, there are 3 blue dots left in a diagonal line.]

Would you like to have a look at that one more time? I know I'd like to see it go all the way to zero ready? Let's watch and can you say how many dots you see as you're watching?

Alright so over to you. 13 (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap).

[Presenter claps the pattern again and the red and blue dots disappear from the screen with each clap as before. This time, the word for each number appears in the top right-hand corner as each dot disappears and they move into formation. After the last clap, there are no dots left.]

OK mathematicians over to you. Can you make up your own counting challenge that involves listening and thinking? Have fun.

So what's some of the mathematics here?

Yeah, so we can imagine a collection getting smaller, taking one away each time to help us count backwards, look, here's nine and if I take one away, there's eight, and if I take one away again, seven and if I take one away another one six, and if I take away another one, I get five yes, so counting backwards or talking about the number before is the same as taking one away. And if we link that to a visual representation, sometimes that helps us remember or think about or problem solve what is the number before and how to count backwards?

[Presenter shows a row of dot collections, labelled with corresponding numerals underneath and getting smaller by one each time as a dot is taken away. They start with 9 blue dots in a 3 by 3 formation, labelled with the numeral 9 underneath. Next, they show 8 blue dots in the same formation as the 9, but with one dot taken away in the middle, labelled with the numeral 8. Then they show 7 blue dots with 3 dots in a vertical line on the left, 3 dots on the right and one more in between the 2 columns of dots, labelled with the numeral 7. Next, they show 6 blue dots as they appear on a dice, labelled with the numeral 6. Lastly, they show 5 blue dots as they appear on a dice, labelled with the numeral 5 followed by an ellipsis to show that the pattern continues.]

We also know that mathematicians say counting words in a particular order and that mathematicians match each counting word with one object.

OK, mathematicians have a lovely day and have fun playing with counting in this way. Until next time.

[End of transcript]