Debating halves

Mathematics – a subject of precision, usually not the topic of debate. However, students in Year 4 had some eye opening debates about the simple idea of a half. They were presented with some shapes divided into halves (or were they?) and one person defended the half, while the other acted as a sceptic. The person defending the half had to use self created strategies to convince the other party that what they were looking at was indeed a shape divided into half. Students came up with strategies such as cutting the shape out, folding it, cutting it in half and placing the two pieces one on top of each other, measuring the perimeter, attempting to calculate the area and comparing it to other shapes, amongst others.

Not only was this an eye-opening experience for me as their guide to see the development of character, communication, social and critical thinking skills, but the experience widened the use of vocabulary and the conversations were rich, not only with words, but with good natured laughter and positive feelings – something we do not always associate with mathematics. At the end of the paired activity, students then created a guide that could serve to define a half, in the end, coming up with their own definition in agreement as a whole class. I thank the website: https://www.youcubed.org/week-inspirational-math/ for their guidance and resources in this lesson.