How to Teach Children Discrete Mathematics
"Discrete mathematics" is a mouthful, and ask any five teachers what it means and you may get five very different answers. At its core, discrete mathematics is simple: using real world, discrete examples to connect math concepts to real life. Too many mathematics lessons are theoretical, or operational, in elementary classrooms. "Hands on learning" is helpful in learning, such as touching a binomial cube in a Montessori classroom, or counting 100 dry beans into a jar to teach concepts. It's part of making math concrete for kids. Discrete mathematics is the next step up, taking mathematics analysis and applying it to real-world examples, making math relevant and applicable to everyday life.
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Instructions
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Decide which concept you want to teach. Do an Internet search engine search for "[concept] discrete mathematics lesson plan." Browse your choices carefully and see if there are existing lesson plans on the Internet that meet your needs.
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Consult discrete mathematics software to find more in-depth tutorials and problems. See "Additional Resources" below for listings of software titles and selections in discrete mathematics for teaching children.
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Convert existing lesson plans to incorporate discrete mathematics. For instance, include projects on game theory or combinatorics--even in 5th or 6th grade--when going through unit plans. You don't have to completely overhaul existing lesson plans in order to include discrete mathematics problems and approaches.
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Look at the major topics included in discrete mathematics, such as algorithms, combinatorics, game theory, Boolean, etc. and see how you can apply these topics to non-math courses. For instance, in geography lessons, the question "which is the shortest path from Point A to Point B" involves both geography and math. Figuring our political districts and population incorporates social studies and math. Teach discrete mathematics across the curriculum.
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Use the computer--actual programming--to teach discrete math to children. Kids as young as five and six can be taught basic HTML tags and simple coding. Teach them how to write a loop, and how to create patterns using a loop, or how to change colors in HTML.
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Create problems relevant to them. If you're teaching teens, a problem such as "There are 7 girls who live in these 7 homes on the map. The driver of the car has only enough gas to drive 30 miles total. She must take all 7 girls home and drive herself home. Which is the best route so that she doesn't run out of gas?" is relevant, but would not work for most 7 year olds. Discrete mathematics is about the real world; make your problems relate to your students' world.
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Tips & Warnings
Use the Internet to find freely-shared lesson plans on discrete mathematics problems for almost every grade.
Don't confuse "hands on" with "discrete."
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Comments
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ebmetzger
Jan 16, 2011
Discrete math is certainly not always about the real world. I think this article confuses "discrete" with "concrete". My understanding is that discrete math is about countable amounts rather than continuous amounts. Combinations and permutations are good examples of discrete math because you can count the number of ways that something can be done. Discrete math does not have to be about real life things. You can count how many integers there are between 1 and 200 that are multiples of 7, so figuring this out would be doing discrete mathematics, but is not about anything in the real world. On the other hand, measurements such as the volume of a container is not discrete but continuous, so even though finding the volume of a can of chili is hands-on, and could connect to real life, it is not discrete math.
