Thoughts about what worked in math circles
I'm disappointed to hear that ruler and compass constructions didn't engage them. I'm currently working on digitising a Hebrew translation of Euclid's Elements, and I was hoping that the very physical aspect (almost like art class) would be more engaging than theoretical stuff, and the fact that it's independent of any numbers would make it less scary than usual maths class. I still think there's educational value in Euclid's Elements beyond the historical importance, but it seems that I might be wrong on it being more engaging in an educational context for most kids.> Trying to figure out who is better at penalty kicks based on counts of scores/misses.If you have kids who care about a particular sport, this is a great way to teach linear algebra. There's a book 'Who's #1? - The Science of Rating and Ranking' that goes through different methods of ratings/rankings in great detail (it was one of the required readings for my MSc in Data Science).