Kōkiri Learn

Week 4 of 5

Your own pattern investigation

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5

Session 1 · SOLVE: See the Pattern

Choose a real pattern

  1. 10 minOptions by context: round-robin games in a league, seats in stadium rows, cup pyramids, fence posts and rails, spirals in pine cones, a doubling savings plan, or your own.
  2. 25 minCollect the first cases by acting it out, building, counting or measuring, and record them in a table.
  3. 15 minFind the rule, show it four ways (words, table, graph, letters), and write one prediction you haven't tested yet.

Session 2 · SOLVE: Organise Information

Organise the evidence

  1. 10 minPlan how to test your prediction with data you didn't use to make the rule: a bigger case, a real fixture list, a real fence, a new pine cone.
  2. 25 minCollect the test data. Record exactly what happened, including anything that didn't fit.
  3. 15 minCompare prediction and result. If they differ, is it the rule, the measuring, or the real world being messier than the model?

Session 3 · SOLVE: Verify

Refine and justify

  1. 20 minRefine your rule if needed, and write down what you changed and why.
  2. 20 minWrite a justification: why must your rule work, using the structure of the pattern (the picture), not just the numbers?
  3. 10 minSwap with a partner and try to break each other's rules.

Getting started

Use the handshake problem with groups of 2, 3, 4 and 5 people first, then connect it to a league of teams.

Stretch

Find a pattern in your context where your first rule works for a while and then fails, and explain why.

Checkpoint

The prediction has been tested against data that wasn't used to make the rule, and the result is recorded honestly.

Activities for this week

Useful this week