Numeracy in Digital Technologies

Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy

Part 1: Introduction and overview

Accessing the Numeracy Progressions on the Australian Curriculum website

Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy

Part 2: Learning from flowers

Number Patterns and algebraic thinking, Quantifying numbers and Interpreting and representing data – an early childhood example using flowers

* Quantifying numbers – counting with one to one correspondence

* Interpreting and representing data – data visualisation with picture graphs and a Venn diagram

* Curriculum links: Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies content descriptions and Numeracy Progressions

* Asking questions to cater for children’s natural curiosity and making sense of the data.

Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy

Part 3: The Compass Rose

Positioning and locating – using a compass app and a visual programming tool (compass rose)

* Discussing familiar phenomenon and asking where the sun sets and rises.

* Using a compass rose app to find where the sun sets and determine where north is.

* Using geospatial systems (GIS) to determine your location

* Using a visual programming tool to create a compass rose activity

Beetle compass turn: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/403316045/

Beetle compass turn and move: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/316879731/

* Curriculum links: Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies content descriptions and Numeracy Progressions

* Using digital information systems to cater for children’s natural curiosity

* Using digital technologies across curriculum areas.

Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy

Part 4: Tessellations

Understanding geometric properties – using Visual programming with apps and robotics to learn and understand polygons and angles

* Using visual programming to tessellate a square – (The example shown in the video is an example of a first attempt at programming which wasn’t an efficient example). Here is an example of the next iteration: tessellating square experiment: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/403327714/

* Using a sphero to investigate polygons. See the spherograph example on sphero edu: https://edu.sphero.com/cwists/preview/30728x

* Curriculum links: Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies content descriptions and Numeracy Progressions

* Debugging code and encouraging persistence

Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy

Part 5: Data from sports

Understanding units of measurement and interpreting and representing data to estimate and predict distance, collect data, understand variables, look for patterns and learn about averages – an unplugged example using seedpods.

* Collecting data from physical sports activities

* Using arbitrary measurements

* Creative representations of data using a variety of data visualisations

* Curriculum links: Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies content descriptions and Numeracy Progressions

* Using different data to represent data for example, photos, text, charts

* Finding opportunities for cross curricular links including cross curriculum priorities.

Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy

Part 6: Using literature as a springboard to numeracy and Digital Technologies

Technologies curriculum concepts –

· estimating pumpkin seeds: ‘How many seeds in a pumpkin?’

· visualising data with histograms from streamers used to measure circumference

· Representing numbers: ‘One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab’

· Resolve teaching resources resolve.edu.au

· DTiF classroom ideas: exploring patterns and data with bread tags and plastic lids

Questions and comments

Links to Science and biology classification

* Cross-curricular links

* Using a visual program (eg Scratch) to create a program of animals to combine to represent numbers. For example, 4 sheep with 4 legs + 3 birds with 2 legs = 22

* Cultural links – using cardinal points as points of reference

* Tessellation – Islamic Art and Victorian floor tiles

* Inquiry questions used as the springboard for digital solutions

Using the numeracy learning progressions to differentiate learning for students