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Introduction : Child's Mathematical Development
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Part 1: Mathematics and Numeracy in the world around us
Mathematics is the base learning for all humans and without the concept of mathematics the evolution of the world did not happen and the human race still resided in the Stone Age. The importance of mathematics is essential for all humans to overcome all necessities in human life. The requirement of mathematics and its application is part of regular human life whether it is the normal calculation for regular chores or occupation sectors the application m, mathematics is a huge blessing for the human race. In this assignment, there are a total of 3 types of examples described to explain the mathematical and numerical skills for everyday life and these are as follows (Hwa, 2018).
Example Available in Nature
The concept of mathematics is developed directly from nature and if someone follows up carefully in time learning math then they can easily find out that everything in mathematics originated directly from nature (Thippana et al. 2020). If you consider a butterfly in nature you can perform several mathematical descriptions from that butterfly. On earth, there are many species of butterflies available and they come in different shapes and colors even with a specific style and nature. There are many dissimilarities and similarities present in the butterfly species. If taking into the count of symmetry between the butterflies then it can be said that the number of wings of every butterfly is 4.
Most butterfly lifespan is hardly 7-8 days after evolving from the pupa some of them have the same color. The measurement of all the organs of the butterfly and the alignment of the wings is calculated using maths. By using mathematics the total calculation of the number of butterflies available on the earth can be done along with how many species of butterfly is available on the earth. The calculation of the total number of butterflies of the same species also can be done. So from these examples, it can be said that without mathematics all the above calculations related to the symmetry in the butterfly cannot be defined numerically. This example is one of the very common examples of the application of mathematics that can be seen by someone.
There are other examples that can be seen in nature like the number of plants available in the solar system, and the distance between all the plants. Other examples such as the total number of stars available in the Milky Way galaxy and the total number of galaxies in the universe along with the distance between them cannot be calculated without mathematics or the numerical approach. There are some plants that are part of the solar system they also have symmetry like they all are in spherical shape but with different radii (Moyer-Packenham et al. 2019). Without using mathematics the calculation for the total number of living species and their specifications cannot be calculated like the example of the butterfly is taken into the consideration to explain the use of mathematical and numeracy approaches in nature.
Example Available in Society
The use of mathematics in human society in casual or regular work life is very much essential. But the understanding of the concept of these mathematical and numerical approaches in daily life is very fundamental. There are several examples of the use of mathematics and numeracy in the daily life of society (Mutaf-Y?ld?z et al. 2020). Let's consider the examples in the sector of engineering and construction field where the use of mathematics and physics is very important. Because mathematics is the language of physics and in the field of engineering and construction without the help of maths and physics everything will be meaningless.
All the buildings, bridges, big apartments, and factories are made by professional civil engineers and to make these bridges and buildings the selection of the plot and the planning for the construction needs to be done. The proper measurement of the land where the bridge or building will be constructed needs to be done. After that, the engineer will judge using the mathematical calculation the bridge is possible to construct in that plot or not. After taking the proper estimation of the plot, the engineer starts to build the plane for the construction using complex mathematical formulas and numerical values. The cost of the project and the amount of material that needs for the construction is also calculated using mathematics.
The total amount of bricks, cement, iron bars and many more, which are essential for any sort of bridge or building construction is also calculated using the different mathematical approaches and numerical value news to apply. There are other examples in a society like if someone wants to travel from one place to another the distance between the places needs to be known numerically to calculate how much time is required for traveling the distance. If someone wants to purchase anything from any shop in daily life then the price of the item cannot be paid without knowing the numerical value which is part of mathematics (Susperreguy et al. 2020).
Without the concept of mathematics and numeracy, daily life chores will become a big hindrance. This above example relates to the engineering field which is a very common example available in society. The base of the engineering field totally depends upon the concept of physics and mathematics. All the parameters that are essential for constructing the bridge or any sort of building, apartment the necessity of the maths is numerical values related calculation are inhabitable. Without applications of mathematics and numeracy, human society will be hopeless.
Example Available in the Personal Life
The application of mathematics numeracy in personal life is essential because without basic mathematical knowledge the daily chores or the household chores will become next to impossible. There are many examples for explaining the necessity of mathematics and numeracy in personal life. Let's take a common example here of administering the dosage of the medicine to children. The usage of medicine is essential for everyday chores where without knowing the specification or the power value of the medicine it will become a very dangerous issue. Not only the specification of the medicine but also the dose or the amount of medicine that needs to be taken to cure the disease need to know which are all numerical values.
Without knowing these factors about the medicine taking the dosage could be dangerous for health and especially since it is becoming a more essential matter in the case of children. The health of the child is very important to its parents so for curing any sort of disease parents go to the doctors for check-ups to determine the disease and ask for a cure. After checking, the child doctor explains the disease and prescribes some medicines to cure the disease (Clerkin & Gilligan, 2018).
But if only the doctor knows about the name of the medicine and does not mention the specification of the power and the dosage of the medicine, then the treatment cannot be done because it is mostly possible that the parents do not have proper medical knowledge. If the doctor does not provide the right amount of the specification of medicine and the wrong dosage applies to the child then its causes some harmful side effects of the medicine to the child. The proper dosage and the specification of the medicine according to the age of the child is a total numerical value which is also part of mathematics.
So the above example is a very common example for explaining the application of mathematical and numerical usage in personal life. There are other examples like buying any sort of item from the store for household chores or other chores, without knowing the specification of the item or the amount of the item it is not possible to buy the thing. Because it all depends upon the calculation and numerical values, which are actually part of mathematics (Baroody et al. 2019).
Part 2 Mathematics and Numeracy in Child’s Play-Based Activities
The necessity of mathematics is inhabitable for facing real-life problems and the without the basic knowledge of mathematics the regular chores of daily life cannot be done. Basic maths knowledge is given in childhood to learn for facing real-life problems. But generally, children are not very fond of studying but nowadays in the advanced generation to keep up the pace of this fast-moving world the knowledge of mathematics are essential. So to solve, this problem many play-based activities or games for the child are available nowadays, so they can learn the basic knowledge of mathematics by playing the games. Examples of these play methods or games are reading rhymes and stories including numbers, and playing games that involve counting, summation, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Here in this section of the assignment, some examples are discussed (Miller, 2018).
Example of play-based activity
There are many play-based methods available in the market nowadays for the child to learn the basic knowledge of mathematics and numeracy. The names of some play-based activities are “Throw snowballs inside or out”, “Stack sticks to practice tally marks”, “Fish for numbers”, “Hit the target and graph”, “Run a flash-card race”, etc. let's consider the activity for this assignment discussion is “Run a flash-card race” (Rixsiboyevna, 2020). This method uses the tape series of flashcards which is attached to the floor and the challenge presented to the children is that they will race by running on the flashcard and picking up the for solving the numerical problem.
If a child solves the problem written on the card then the child can go to the next flash card. This game is a race between the children where all the participating children will race among themselves by moving to solve the mathematical problem given in the flash card and move forward from the starting line to the finishing line (Vogt et al. 2020).
The suitable age range for the activity
The suitable range for the “run a flash card race” starts nearly after the 6 months of the child and it can be followed at age of 1 or 1.5 years. The age range is a very important issue for this type of play activity because there are many examples of play-based activities for learning basic numerical problems.
Discussion about the mathematics and/or numeracy in the play activity
In the above section the example of a play-based activity for learning basic mathematics and numeracy is given and the name of the activity is “Run a flash card race” is discussed along with the benefits of this activity. The flash card contains all the numerical and mathematical problems and the children will race on the cards by solving the problem. This will improve the accuracy of problem-solving and competitiveness among the children (Hassinger-Das et al. 2018).
Justification of the Run a flash-card race activity
The play-based method discussed here is called the “Run a flash card race” which is one of the famous games among children for learning basic mathematics skills. In this activity, children will run from a start point to an endpoint and between the start and end point there will be several flash cards palace in the racing path children needs to pick up the flash card where a numerical problem will be written and by solving the problem accurately they proceed to the race (Ashraf et al. 2019). By using this method the problem-solving accuracy among the children will increase, and they become competitive with each other. The method also helps to create the interest of children in the subject of mathematics and other studies. Different child's brain psychology is different but most children love to play games so using many play methods for study the children will take an interest in learning new things the play-based methods for learning mathematics and numeracy is very useful for children to get a knowledge of real-life in the early phase of the life.
References
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