Svager Worksheet
Dr. Thyrsa Svager is one of the seven Black mathematicians to have earned a PhD in mathematics from The Ohio State University.
On her master’s thesis, she explored the problem of describing the numbers that can be represented as the sum of two, three or four squares. Here, the word “squares” refers to square numbers or perfect squares, that is, numbers that result from the product of an integer with itself. In this activity, students explore some of the concepts on Dr. Svager’s thesis.
This ready-to-print worksheet is ideal if you are looking for a quick activity or if you are a social sciences educator and don't want to invest so much time talking about math. Besides the printable student worksheet, you will find a set of slides to project and guide the activity. Note that the fifth and seventh slides include solutions.
Lesson Details
Grade level: 3rd to 12th
Estimated time: 15 minutes
Form of work: Individual
Math concepts: area, mental arithmetic, squaring, counterexamples
Accompanying slides with solutions
This activity is also available as lesson plan in two levels: 3rd to 7th or 8th to 12th. These lesson plans involve two different board games on the topic.
Filters: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, squaring, area, mental arithmetic, counterexamples, 15 minutes
