Math walk

Vincent and I spent Tuesday morning on the Brown School Math Walk, mostly with other high school juniors. Working in groups of 35, all o fhte juniors and some other advanced math students walked around downtown Louisville and and gathered data and solved math problems like calculating the slope of the stairs in front of the Louisville Gas and Electric company building and what percentage of Kentucky Center for the Arts recognized donors gave the center more than $100,000 last year. Each grop carried a backpack with a calculator, measuring tape, and other equipment. Some of the math was beyond me. But we had a senior taking precalculus who was not only good at redirecting kids that needed that but also at math. Vincent and i were in different groups. I recognized some kids, but others in my two groups I had never seen. This is one of those occasions when the Brown School made use of both its downtown location and its stress on independent and collaborate learning. Although it started out cold, it was a beautiful day, and we spent a lot of time on West Main Street, which reportedly features the largest collection of cast iron work in the country. The kids were mostly involved, though with 8 or 9 people tota in the two groups some kids were more engaged than others.