Thursday 11 December 2014

The 12 Days of Pascal's Triangle

This is a simple paper & pencil activity that is supposed to be a light exercise to bring in the Christmas season. We got the original idea for this from this site and modified it a bit. It is not particularly taxing but could be used when talking about Pascal's triangle or sequences and series in general (and of course if it's Christmas time). As it is the assignment is fairly simple but it could easily be extended to have students find the general term of both the series and sequences.

  • MCR3U -  C1.5 determine, through investigation, recursive patterns in the Fibonacci sequence, in related sequences, and in Pascal’s triangle, and represent the patterns in a variety of ways; C2.2 determine the formula for the general term of an arithmetic sequence or geometric sequence, through investigation using a variety of tools and strategies, and apply the formula to calculate any term in a sequence; C2.2 determine the formula for the sum of an arithmetic or geometric series, through investigation using a variety of tools and strategies, and apply the formula to calculate the sum of a given number of consecutive terms 
  • MDM4U - A2.4 make connections, through investigation, between combinations and Pascal’s triangle
  • Just the hand out
  • Hand out the sheet and let the Pascal/Christmas joy begin
  • 12 Days of Pascal (with answers) (doc) (pdf)
Did you use this activity? Do you have a way to make it better? If so tell us in the comment section. Thanks

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