IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v9y2021i13p1567-d588056.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Graph Theory for Primary School Students with High Skills in Mathematics

Author

Listed:
  • Rocío Blanco

    (Facultad de Educación, Campus Universitario s/n, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 16071 Cuenca, Spain)

  • Melody García-Moya

    (Facultad de Educación, Campus Universitario s/n, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 16071 Cuenca, Spain)

Abstract

Graph theory is a powerful representation and problem-solving tool, but it is not included in present curriculum at school levels. In this study we perform a didactic proposal based in graph theory, to provide students useful and motivational tools for problem solving. The participants, who were highly skilled in mathematics, worked on map coloring, Eulerian cycles, star polygons and other related topics. The program included six sessions in a workshop format and four creative sessions where participants invented their own mathematical challenges. Throughout the experience they applied a wide range of strategies to solve problems, such as look for a pattern, counting strategies or draw the associated graph, among others. In addition, they created as challenges the same type of problems posed in workshops. We conclude that graph theory successfully increases motivation of participants towards mathematics and allows the appearance and enforcement of problem-solving strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Rocío Blanco & Melody García-Moya, 2021. "Graph Theory for Primary School Students with High Skills in Mathematics," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(13), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:13:p:1567-:d:588056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/13/1567/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/13/1567/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:13:p:1567-:d:588056. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.