math story

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Home : 2004 : March : 3

math story
By Sari

I don't have any specific suggestions for projects, but there is a cute story that addresses the concept of doubling. I'm not sure how old your students are, but if they're studying multiplication and division, they might
be a bit young for the story. I'm not sure.
Anyway, the story is "The Rajah's Rice." I'm sorry that I don't know who the author is. In the story, the main character heals the rajah's favorite elephant. He offers her a reward of her choosing. She asks him to bring a chess board and to place one grain of rice in the first square, two in the second, four in the third, and so on, doubling

the number of grains in each square. The rajah thinks he has got off easy until he realizes how quickly doubling can create huge numbers! (And after all, doubling is just multiplying by two.)

The story is an example of how a math concept can be part of the plot. Maybe you could read the story and then have students create their own stories using a math concept they have learned in class.