Space

This 'weaving guide’ from the Nuffield Mathematics Project prepared to show how the main themes such as Computation and structure and Shape and size could become interwoven in work on a particular topic. The title should really perhaps be 'The geometry of inner space'. The human problems involved might form another investigation, as indeed might the even more staggeringly astronomical measurements beyond the solar system.

It is not suggested that all children will want to 'do a project on space'. This guide is designed simply to show some of the possibilities. It is in no sense a 'course'. For example, quite young children may enjoy cutting up the orange or apple while the work involving decimals is obviously for much later.

The final section is devoted to a single project undertaken by six 10-year-olds from a school in Staffordshire. This is reproduced as it was presented, with only a few words which are seen to be 'corrected' by the teacher. This surely makes the possibilities more convincing than a 'put-up job' with no imperfections. In this work computation, geometry, graphical work and 'reading-up' have been manifestly woven together; in fact, much mathematics has arisen naturally in a context of genuine interest.