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Welcome from Dr. Yossi Elran

Watch Yossi Elran welcome you to the course
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Hello and welcome to our course, an introduction to recreational math, brought to you by the Davidson Institute of Science Education, the educational wing of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. It’s our job to bring math and science to the general public, and that’s what I hope to do together with you in this Future Learn course, So, join me on a fantastic journey into one of the most entertaining ways to experience math. The way we’re going to do this is just by going step by step through the 3 weeks of our course.
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The first week we’ll dedicate to finding out just what is recreational math, and who were the leading historical and contemporary figures that made it such a popular field. In the second week we’ll explore the rich world of mathematical puzzles, and in the third week we’ll play with some mathematical games. The course is full of activities, videos, articles and quizzes. Even more important though are your comments, and the discussions throughout the course, so please don’t be shy and post a lot! I’ll be there to help along the way, but what makes me really excited is when you help each other. That kind of social interaction within the course really mimics a proper classroom and benefits everyone. Oh! I nearly forgot!
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One important part of recreational math is the connection between math and magic, so, at the end of each week I’ll treat you to a mathematical magic trick. I suppose that’s my way of bribing you to stay with us the whole course! Are you ready? Then, let’s go!

Hello! I’m Dr Yossi Elran and this course is all about recreational math. Each week will have a theme, and we’ll learn about it through videos, articles and discussion. There will also be other optional tasks and exercises you can try to enhance your learning. Each week builds on the last, so we strongly recommend you work through each week in order. Each week should take you 2 to 3 hours to complete if you do all the tasks, and there are quizzes along the way and a test at the end of the course so you can see how much you have learnt.

Follow Yossi

To see Yossi’s comments in your activity feed or when using the ‘following’ filter in discussions, visit his FutureLearn profile and click “follow”.

You can also follow us on other social media, Facebook and Twitter, by using the hashtag #FLrecmath

Using FutureLearn

If this is your first FutureLearn course, you may find it useful to watch this ‘how it works’ video guide. Even if you’re an old hand, you may still like to read this FutureLearn blog post which explains all the recent changes to the in-course navigation. We also recommend reading six tips and tools for social learning on FutureLearn to get the most out of the interactive and social learning features of this course.

Get extra benefits, upgrade your course

You can now get extra benefits by upgrading this course, including: Unlimited access to the course: Go at your own pace with unlimited access to the course for as long as it exists on FutureLearn. Access to tests: Ensure you’ve mastered the material with access to tests on the course. A Certificate of Achievement: To help you demonstrate your learning we’ll send you a Certificate of Achievement when you become eligible. Find out more

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An Introduction to Recreational Math: Fun, Games, and Puzzles

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