Number Smart

What is number smart?

This intelligence covers logical and mathematical skills. It is working with numbers, abstraction, reasoning and logic.

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What are some personality qualities of number smart people?

Number smart people like to crunch numbers. They enjoy math and games of logic such as chess. They excel in activities such as computer programming and other logic based activities. Number smart people learn best in critical thinking activities and experimentation.

What are some activities and technologies that would help number smart people in a learning environment?

Google Finance - Our budding economists will enjoy having all the tools Google Finance has to offer, from current news to building custom portfolios to discovering trends in the stock market.

Programming – This is a great area to reinforce logic and systematic thinking. There are two very good programming languages that come to mind when thinking in this area. MIT has a program called Scratch which I feel would be a good fit for all ages, young and old. Alice is another language for programming in a 3D environment which is more advanced. There are also the traditional programming languages typically taught in a programming class although these won’t be as conducive to developing a digital story or other project for something other than a straight math or programming class.

Sketchup – This is a 3D modeling tool that every future engineer should use. Sketchup lets you engineer the next mega-bridge or build skyscrapers in 3D. Students will be able to build these 3D models and share them with the world.

Games – I am going to use games again using both mobile handhelds (cell phones, iPods, PSP’s, etc.) and online. There are many resources in this category to challenge the number smart persons. Baingle has brain teasers, games such as Chess and Sudoku, and much more.

Google Docs – This is again a standard tool every student and faculty needs access to. For the number smart person, they will enjoy working with spreadsheets and charts. Click for the standard Google Docs link. I will also again urge the use of Google Apps for Education.

With the Internet resources we have available and the computing resources now in everything from cell phones to super-computers, number smart people have many opportunities to learn and express themselves. What would you do to help support this intelligence from a learning standpoint or maybe harder yet, from an assessing standpoint? Share your comments…