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Exponents, Reciprocals, Expected Values, Oh My! Day 19...
Exponents. Reciprocals. Cubes. Relays. Career Day. Check out day 19 BEAM Discovery Downtown!
There was a lot going on at BEAM Discovery Downtown on Day 19! In Exponents: Super Powered Numbers, students tested their classmates’ laws about exponents. Students explored reciprocals in Fractions: Puzzles, Problems, and Games. And in Big Questions and Big Answers, students learned how to calculate expected values and played a dice game where they tried to beat the odds.
In Open Math Time, students worked on Problem Sets and the 100 Problem Challenge. Downtown students are getting close to claiming the prize for solving all 100 problems!
Relays! BEAM students can choose collaborative or competitive categories for Relays, where teams work to solve problems together.
During activities, students played chess, learned new knots in knitting, worked with Snap Circuits, and more.
“What’s it really like to work at Google?” “How do you know when something is fake news?” BEAM students asked great questions of STEM professionals from Google, Reuters, Harvard, MIT, and more as part of Career Day at BEAM Discovery Downtown.
BEAM Discovery Uptown Day 18!
Students were busy on Day 18 of BEAM Discovery Uptown!
Students were busy on Day 18 of BEAM Discovery Uptown. After breakfast, some students started the day in the class Playing with Logic, where they explored the Shuttle Puzzle by becoming the puzzle pieces. (Classes at BEAM are unlike anything most students see at school. Other classes this week include Math for Pirates and Learning from The Number Devil.)
During Open Math Time, when students get to choose what math they work on, some students completed problem sets from their classes. Students are often encouraged to work together to find the answers.
In Applied Math, students talked about game strategies and how to win at games, like Nim. They asked the question, “Can strategies help you win even at a game like Rock, Paper, Scissors, that seems all about luck?” Yes, they decided, by doing things like looking for patterns in your opponent’s play. To test their theories, they squared off in a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament!
Students checked out the 100 Problem Challenge. As of today, only one problem remains! If the students solve all 100, they win a special prize.
A group of students discussed Problem 74 with Xavier, a veteran faculty member.
Are you up to the challenge? Here’s Problem 74:
In Problem 53, you found a way to link three rings so that if you cut just one of the three rings, the other two would come apart.
In this problem, your goal is to do the same thing but with four rings. Together, all four should be linked. But cut any one of the four rings, and the other three should come apart. (Hint: try using pipe cleaners, like the students above, to help visualize the problem.)
Activities at Beam Discovery
Activities at BEAM Discovery’s Downtown site is one of the ways we unwind and socialize with each other. During Week 3 we were able to take great pictures of students and staff having a great time.
Basketball
Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament
Kickball
Friendship Bracelet Making
A Day at BEAM Discovery
So what exactly happens at BEAM Discovery? Here’s a look at a typical day, featuring photos from BEAM Discovery’s Downtown NYC campus!
The morning starts with breakfast, followed by morning classes. BEAM believes in choice, so students pick classes, which might be “Beating Sherlock” or “Fractions, Puzzles, and Games.”
After class, students have an hour of Open Math Time, time where they can work on any math they choose, individually or in groups. They make sure to complete required PSets (problem sets) from class, and they can then explore challenges (the Problem of the Week or the 100 Problem Challenge), math books, coding websites, the Art of Problem Solving, and more.
After class, it’s on to activities! BEAM students get their choice of sports, board games, arts and crafts, and other creative activities. Recent hits included how to solve a Rubik’s cube, origami, anime club, and relay tic-tac-toe.
After activities, it’s off to lunch. BEAM pays for catered lunch from local restaurants every day. These photos are from empanada Thursday!
Most days, the afternoon block features an exact repeat of the morning block: class, open math time, activities. But one day each week, we have special afternoons, which feature Relays, a team-based math competition where students solve math challenges with some silliness mixed in. A recent problem required students to hum a tune their judge would recognize before they gave their math answer!
When the day wraps up, students join their travel groups to take the subway home and relax and recharge so their brains are fresh for another day at BEAM!