IWB.... Slideshow.... Action! Investigating The Number 9

With an eye to the using and applying strands so apparent in the New Mathematics Framework , I have just found this interesting group on Flickr. Called simply Nine, the pool have currently 3,037 uploaded images, that represent the number 9. So what I hear you cry, well, I haven't viewed them all, but there are a number of different representations that could make interesting starting points for discussions and/or guided investigations focussed around thinking together with the IWB during Numeracy Hour.

With younger students, where we might want to discuss numbers in the environment, there are photos showing different everyday representations of the digit 9.

With slightly older students how about starting with a slideshow, showing a range of 2 digit numbers with a digital root of 9, and opening the oral mental session with a question like "What's special about these images?" perhaps a bit too open, how about "What do you notice about the numbers in these photographs?" or "I made a slideshow to start today's session, I have called it 9, while you watch it today I would like you and your neighbour to think together about why that might be?" Perhaps you might choose to include only 9 photos, inorder to allow an in, by counting for those who might not readily focus in on the numbers in the images.

With older students perhaps we could use a slideshow involving some of the more obscure, ways of representing nine like these two.

Firstly there is a nine in this number, but perhaps there are two nines, 1 + 8 = 9 too. What about extending this to consider the digital root of the whole number like so....

(1+8) + 9 = 18 -> 1 + 8 = 9

We could also consider building on this guided investigation as a starting point in a multiplication unit to help support work around the nine times table, what do the students notice about the digits in the products of the nine times table, try working through the digital root, as we did with the number above...

How about this? What do you notice about the number on this bus?

9711.

What happens if... we divide 9711 by 9? Does this work with all the numbers in my photo stories of 9?


I think this is truly fantastic collection of photos. Thanks. Inspired of Bristol!