Descobertes matemàtiques

The following is a brief research project
on the geometrical shape of numbers carried
out by fourth-year primary students at the
Països Catalans school in Lleida. It was
completed as an activity of mathematical
discovery over a schedule of one class per
week. The task began as an attempt to
answer a particular question asked by the
pupils themselves: What is the geometrical
shape of numbers? It was developed in small,
regulated groups, and linked elements of the
curriculum to real life. It also allowed for
different kinds of representation, and
encouraged the need among students to
explain to the others any new findings.
Awareness of diversity was inevitable, since it
was by using various materials and through
the different representations themselves that
a solution incorporating all the knowledge of
the whole group was finally arrived at.
Ultimately, this encourages mathematical
thinking. The project was included in the X
Lleimat Convention for Competence
Enrichment that took place in the city of
Lleida in February 2014.