Life

I wanted kids to realize that math isn't just learning about 2,000 year old geometry and 400 year old algebra. I wanted kids to realize that math is alive and well, and there is new math being created every day as well.

I also wanted kids to know that inputting a value once to get the corresponding output isn't the end of the story either. The idea of iteration leads to some surprising results.

I shared with the kids the chaos game and the 3n+1 conjecture. The chaos game has a random process that leads to order, and the 3n+1 conjecture has an ordered process that leads to unpredictable results.

I then let the kids explore a cellular automata program which I wrote for them to use, based on John Conway's game of life. Kids were challenged to either discover new creatures, theorize possible creatures, or collect data on existing creatures.