Factorization

Check out this amazing animation from datapointed.net that popped up my twitter feed via @RichardsonLiza.

The infinite animation shows a sequence of dancing dots that form factorization diagrams.

I covered the top left corner when showing the animation to students as it reveals too much about what is happening. Whilst the students watched the animation they shared, while I recorded, what they were noticing. We then turned our attention to wonders.

I then gave students an A3 printed version so they could annotate any patterns and start to explore the concept of factorization. Whilst the students were working I continued to record their wonderings. For the next session students have set themselves the following questions:

• Can the same pattern be represented as different factorizations?
• Can the same number be represented by different patterns?

Exploring factorization patterns with counters