KQED News Mind/Shift – Kara Newhouse
Is a dump truck a vehicle? What about a skateboard? An elevator? A hamster wheel? These are some of the questions math educator Christopher Danielson has asked — or been asked — while playing a reasoning game he calls “Is It or Not?” The game began with a debate between another math educator, Kassia Wedekind, and her six-year-old daughter, but Danielson has played it with children of all ages, including his own. “It was a dinner table conversation. Both kids really joined in on it and enjoyed thinking of interesting, additional cases,” he said. His daughter, who was 12 at the time, raised the hamster wheel question and continued developing the list well after the meal ended.