Patterns in the city: a mathematics project

Abstract

One aspect of mathematics education, in this century, is the lack of scientific culture and cu- riosity of young people as well as the low mathematics knowledge of students. These students’ low mathematics skills translate into lack of motivation for learning this subject, traditionally identified as a hard task. It is our belief that it is important to show the invisible face of mathe- matics around us to get students and teachers more motivated. In this presentation we introduce an overview of this project whose first goal is to promote the mathematics culture of elementary pre-service teachers and students through the observation and exploration of the urban environ- ment while designing mathematics materials for elementary education. We will present the de- scription of some of the tasks, in particular those connected with patterns