3 ACT Task: Beat The Freeze: Circumference

Midseason form 😎❄️ pic.twitter.com/1i9N8ykeDf

— The Freeze (@BeatTheFreeze) March 29, 2018

The Situation: 
During Atlanta Braves games, one fan has a chance to race "The Freeze." Who is the first to reach the end?

Act 1: First 10 Second of the Video:

The video shows the contestant running the warning track in the outfield. It shows the lead the contestant has over "The Freeze."

Have the students discuss who they think will win.

How can we prove who will win or lose? What would we have to know in order to solve this problem? Are there properties of a baseball field that we need to know before beginning?

Act 2:

At the beginning of the video it shows the distance to the left field wall. The distance to the right field wall is 325. You can use 335 or round to 330. 

The Freeze runs at 22.5 ft/sec

The contestant runs at 19.1 ft/sec

The contestant is given an 70 foot head start.

Act 3: 

Show the full video. 

Extension Questions:

How long can The Freeze wait and still win?

What if the rates changed at the midway point?

What is the biggest lead you could give the fan and win?

If you were the contestant what strategy might you use to win?

Peer Teaching with ELL Students

I have been teaching one student who is an English language learner who came to me at semester how to add and subtract proper fractions for the past three days. Everyday they come in I feel like I am starting from square one each day. I tried teaching by one example at a time, didn't work. I tried teaching using visuals like fraction circles and bars, that failed. The student was getting more and more frustrated, because they weren't moving forward.

I tried a different way. The other students in my class are to graphing linear inequalities. A majority of students in this class speak limited English and/or struggle with mathematics. One of the students finished early and I asked them to help this student.

This was their discussion back in forth in Spanish. It was a great way for both students to move forward mathematically and feel confident going forward.

Link to conversation in Spanish: https://chirb.it/ntn5mD . The sound byte is a minute and a half of the whole conversation which took about 5 minutes. 

The girl in the audio does an excellent job of breaking down the problem and used fraction bars to represent the fractions in the problem. You can hear her counting out the fraction bar in the first part of the audio, eventually she moves towards release of instruction where they did a problem together, then she watched as the student did one guiding through the entire process.

I need to find ways of incorporating more peer teaching for my other students, I wonder how I can help guide them through the steps of asking questions and dialogue between each other better?

Orthographic Projection with Merge Cube

Merge Cube has been a hit with stores like Walmart offering the simple flexible cubes for a dollar a piece. Merge cube is a simple way to get students using augmented reality in a QR code way. Students scan the Merge Cube with an app and a magical world appears.

One of my favorite apps using the Merge Cube is Dig!

Using the app changes a simple cube with a bunch of symbols looking like hieroglyphics into another world. You can build and deconstruct the cube that looks almost exactly like Minecraft. The reason I like this app the most is that students can build using the app.

My students at the beginning of the year struggle with this concept of orthographic projection and being able to correctly sketch the block layout. Having students use the Merge Cube students can grasp that conceptual understanding that they don't get from a sketch.  Last year I borrowed some of the wooden blocks our construction teacher uses and it was a great way for some of the students to see the finished product. The app allows students to see around each object looking at it from the sides and from the top.

What I would like to see is have students create their own and have stations at each group where students correctly draw the orthographic projection of their groups creation. 

                                 

TIP: If you can't get a Merge Cube for each student, there is a shortcut. I printed a picture of one side of the Merge Cube and you can't rotate it like a Merge Cube showing each side, but students can use that one side to create especially using the Dig! app.