Okay, I admit it, I am not altogether that big of a mathematics fan. After years of statistics, I could honestly
never look at another "Pearson's R" again in my life. But as a teacher, I am constantly being asked to
help students with their math! AAARGH!
Luckily, LEGO® bricks lend themselves to teaching mathematics. For example, I have had great success in
demonstrating principles of geometry with LEGO® bricks ( and another construct called "Gogolplex" ). Most
students can readily pick up math...nine times out of ten it is the motivation that is lacking!
In any case, I love mechanical gadgets. In fact, most of my students love mechanical gadgets! So
it was a wonderful idea to incorporate math and gadgetry. Can you build a LEGO® calculating machine?
Before the advent of Gak, many folk built mechanical calculating machines! The abacus ( invented
by those wacky Babylonians about 3000 BC ) is regarded as the first calculating machine whose
beads can be used to add, subtract, multiply and divide! ( Of course,
I had to build one out of LEGO® bricks! ). Need I mention Pascaline's Digital Adding Machine,
Gottfried Leibniz's "Hand Cranked Calculator," Charles Babbage's ( aka "the father of the
modern computer" ) Difference Machine or Analytical Machine? How about Alan Turing and his
Turing Machine? Vannevar Bush's Differential Analyzer? Derrick Lehmer's Mathematical Sieve?
okay, I could on, but I would rather talk about what I did with my students.
PCS students have built calculating machines before on their own initiative( yes Chris I heard about
yours! ), but this was the first time I asked students to tackle this project! At first I offered a half rack of
soda pop ( come on, I'm poor! ) to the student or student team who constructs the first mechanical
LEGO® calculator!
The results should prove interesting. One of the reasons why the PCS system works so well, it that it
combines guided hands-on discovery learning with interesting projects. Students who care not a fig
for number crunching now through themselves wholeheartedly into building a device that adds. I watch
students yank down history books to see how they did it in the past!
Go Back to Weird Richard