Learning Math Outdoors: Graph Theory using Maps

In this paper, we present planning for a learning trajectory to teach a graph theory rule, specifically that underlying Euler’s Königsberg Bridges problem, using a design research approach. With a Realistic Mathematics Education approach and contextualizing the learning trajectory in the embodied cognition theoretical framework, we designed and tested some tasks to be performed outdoors and with the use of the students’ body and movement. Preliminary results show how students connected the outdoor activities with other tasks that required a higher level of abstraction, understanding some mathematical properties, referring to the experience they lived in first person. These results motivate further investigations on this topic.