blog 3-- the king's chessboard

1. I chose to read the children's book "The King's Chessboard" by David Birch, illustrated by Devis Grebu. It is about a wise man in India who was summoned to appear in front of the king and he was rewarded. The king would not take no for an answer and demanded the wise man to choose a reward for his outstanding services for the king. He finally decided that he wanted a grain of rice for each square of the king's chessboard but doubled each day so for the 2nd day he got two grains of rice, the next day 4 grains of rice, and so on. The king seemed confused and the queen wanted him to ask how much rice that would be- he soon came to realize that when numbers are growing exponentially, they grow to be much bigger than would have originally thought.

2. "The King's Chessboard" demonstrates a clever way to show how to use exponential growth in a fun way and how it can be applied in real life situations. The wise man presents the king with a reward of a grain of rice, doubling with each day and chess square. This book did a super creative job of explaining this math concept and showing a real-world application of exponential growth.

3. Literature can be quite effective in teaching math concepts because it adds a level of creativity that helps people remember concepts actually very effectively. Story narratives are much easier to remember because the story makes the concept much more memorable.

Ali Shapero