I know a middle school math teacher looking for some suggestions for hands-on activities to teach the concept of real numbers. I'm new to this site, so this may be a little off topic.



Best way to teach concept of real numbers using a hands-on activity?
What do you mean exactly? Show them that not all numbers are rational? That not all numbers are algebraic? I think that you could explain historically how the Pythagoreans thought all numbers were rational. Then challenge them to find a number which is not rational. You might be surprised with the creativity you get. Maybe they know rational numbers have repeating decimal expansions and so they will invent one which does not repeat. Challenge them to explain why rational numbers have repeating decimal expansions. If you like geometry, you could lead them to the essential step in the geometric argument here:


<http://blog.plover.com/math/sqrt-2-new.html>


that the square root of two is irrational.


