Counting Stories

Shriley Dalrymple dicsusses a Counting Stories Project, where students re-write or create a children’s story, fairy tale, nursery rhyme or song so that it includes probability and counting concepts and principles. The mathematics they introduce in the story must connect to the context of the story, and provide opportunities for decision-making on the part of the characters within the story. The mathematics may be complex but students try to keep the story simple. The assessment of this assignment will focus on the mathematics within the story line and the integration of narrative and mathematical forms in the story.

• See 17 of the Counting Stories
• See the project handout
• See also lesson three of Unit 1: Counting and Probability

17 Counting Stories

1. Little Orange Riding Hood
2. Jack and the Beanstalk
3. Alice in Wonderland
4. My Very First Problem Solving Mother Goose
5. The Tale of the Hood and the Wolf
6. Lord of the Rings
7. Puss in Boots
8. The Gingerbread Man
9. Lee Meets Lee
10. Cinderella and her Math Problems
11. The Wizard of Oz
12. The Number Devil
13. Hansel and Gretel
14. The Math Princess who lay Dormant
15. The Balloon Tree
16. Timoteo Donato and the Magical Fountain
17. The Story of Probabella

The Math Performance Festival is funded by the Imperial Oil Foundation, the Fields Institute, the Faculty of Education at UWO , and the Canadian Mathematical Society. A project by George Gadanidis (UWO), Susan Gerofsky (UBC), and Rick Jardine (UWO).