Christy Hovanetz, Ph.D., is a Senior Policy Fellow for ExcelinEd focusing on school accountability and math policies.
Thank you for being a loyal #MathMonday reader. Starting this month, we’re going to send these updates monthly instead of weekly. If you’ve got math-related ideas for future editions, please send them our way!
“Octa” is a prefix that comes from the Greek oktṓ, meaning eight, and its Latin equivalent octō, which is nearly identical in spelling and pronunciation. Octa appears as a prefix in many math, scientific and technical terms. Here are a few: An octagon is an eight-sided figure; octavalent means having eight atoms; an octopus is an animal with eight arms; and now we’re in the month of October.
But October is the tenth month in our calendar—how does that make sense?
According to most accounts, it was around 750 BCE that Romulus, legendary founder and first king of Rome, established the Roman calendar consisting of ten months. The first month began in spring with March, making October the eighth month. After December, winter was left as an unassigned span of days before the next year began.
This 10-month calendar was modified by Julius Cesar. His Julian calendar drifted by 10 days each year and had a new schedule for leap years, although it no longer synced with the seasons.
Adjustments were not made until many centuries later. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII remedied several issues by adding days and inserting the months of January and February at the start of the Julian calendar, thereby creating the 12-month Gregorian calendar.
In that process, the existing months moved forward. October (Octa-) went from the 8th month to the 10th month, September (Sept-) went from 7th to 9th, November (Nona-) from 9th to 11th and December (Dec-) from 10th to 12th. Although the months’ names no longer matched their position in the calendar, Pope Gregory did not bother to change the names because people were already familiar with them, and he wanted to avoid confusion.
Fortunately, in the field of mathematics, octa will always mean eight. Nona will mean nine, sept will mean seven, and dec will mean ten. Octagons will always have eight sides and eight angles, and octahedrons will always consist of eight equilateral triangles! Knowing these prefixes makes identifying geometric shapes easier.
Speaking of geometry, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel found that “Early exposure to basic geometric shapes, names, and other concepts are helpful in developing children’s formal geometric knowledge and skills.”
Even though young kids have the spatial visualization skills needed for learning geometry, formal instruction is still necessary. Math education ensures that children build incrementally on their basic knowledge. This is especially important because proficiency with certain aspects of geometry and measurement is a critical foundation for algebra.
For example, students in the middle grades must learn to analyze the various properties of two- and three-dimensional shapes using formulas to determine perimeter, area, volume and surface area. They also should also be able to find unknown lengths, angles and areas. To understand algebra better, it’s also important to have experience with similar triangles. This helps when you’re dealing with things like the slope of a straight line and linear functions.
Improving math achievement is a policy area state leaders can always angle in on. ExcelinEd went to great lengths to develop a measured approach to its math policy fundamental principles and the comprehensive K-8 math model policy. Both are based on the recommendations of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel.
Knowing math vocabulary is essential to making connections, communicating ideas and understanding math concepts. Take time to learn new math words this month and even celebrate Noah Webster’s birthday on National Dictionary Day, observed on October 16.
