Eclipse: Math Class

Since we are not exactly in the path of totality we are in the 98% range, I have bought 50 Eclipse glasses through Rainbow Symphony. I want students to enjoy the eclipse, this is my first solar eclipse, but I am also an astronomy geek. Below is what Schuyler, Nebraska will look like at that time.

Day Before Eclipse

I will use this video as an introduction to the eclipse: https://youtu.be/BmOR4XSZoIQ

On that day we are going to be citizen scientists, we are going to be measuring the temperature change during totality. On this day we will talk about what the temperature drop will look like and what type of graph might that be for the entire day? We will take guesses and put them up on the white board. Each student will be given one of the worksheets below and ask them to fill it out and be as specific as possible.

Here is a link to this graph: Graph Worksheet

After all of the students have recorded their own answers, I will show them the air temperature in Lusaka, Zambia during the June 21 solar eclipse. Ask them how it will differ

I will ask the students how this will be different or the same from their graph, and what the change in air temperature was and how they think they measured air temperature.

We will go outside and test our Eclipse Viewers to make sure all students know how to use them.

You can find the activity here: Temperature Change during Totality

Eclipse Day
For the 2 hours before and after the eclipse we will go outside on the soccer field and measure the air temperature every couple of minutes. For the time that the eclipse is happening, I will take the readings so the students can enjoy the eclipse.

Students will have their own recording sheet, since we are doing our more frequently than the one in the worksheet. I will have to change it.

Here is the link with all of information and this worksheet above attached here: Citizen Scientist

Day After Eclipse
I will compile all of the data that the students took and import it into GlobeObserver for the Citizen Scientist project. Also I will give all of the students the raw data and ask them to extrapolate. I want students to ask questions at the beginning of class and answer them to the group at the end of class. Example questions would include: What the graph looked like? How far were we off? What was the temperature drop? Did the air temperature drop faster or increase faster?

I want to make August 21st a learning experience, but also a chance to see something they may never see again. Some students might not see another eclipse until April 8, 2024. What are other math teachers doing during or for the eclipse?

The eclipse lesson was amazing. The citizen scientist record sheet was a great way to engage students in learning that day while collecting data. The best part of the record sheet was the amount of sun blocked out by the moon, students had to estimate the amount of sun blocked out by estimating.

 

Our final data they collected and then evaluated the next day was the following: 

We went back into class and recorded what do you notice? What do you wonder?

Solving Trig Ratios and Google Expeditions

Last year I did a solving trig ratios using Google Cardboards and the app Google Cardboard, but on Android devices the app is different from one platform to the next, so I needed an upgrade. I have been looking at Google Expeditions for a while now and finally had enough Google Cardboards and extra VR headsets (thanks Alice Keeler!!).

Google Expeditions was a great app and it allowed me to introduce other concepts like history combined with math. Another added benefit was that most of my students are from Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala and some of these ruins were close to where they use to live.

My favorite thing is that I can direct students to look at something while reading and comes with questions to ask the students. I didn't use all of the questions, but I did use the intermediate question when it came to the number of steps. I could direct students to use their made sextants to find the angle of elevation to answer the questions.

Here are some of the students on their expedition.

Here is a link to the worksheet that students had to fill out and guide them: goo.gl/uRcvkR

Creating Mathematical Art (PBL Unit #1)

Schuyler Central High School has started a Project-based Learning Class for students who are struggling in general education classes.

Students had to find surface area and volume of all the shapes on their own, using computers and equations to find all of the measurements.

Students then once completed had to make a work of art based on the measurements they found. This is an example of one.

I took some pictures along the way here they are.








Since the beginning of the year I have been slowly gaining students, I am now up to 5 students. Since they have been slowly trickling in this has been an excellent project to get them started.

This project for most of the students has been a 2-3 week project.

Gene Davis Inspired Math/Art Project

One of my favorite projects we do is at the end of the first quarter. After we have gone through perpendicular, intersecting, and parallel lines I have an art project that students do. Students have to split up their piece of card stock into 4 equal shapes with a ruler on the front and on the back split the two on the front right down the middle.

I never tell students what the lines are for on the back, but they are for postcards for their upcoming parent teacher conferences. I hang up one set in the classroom and send the others home over time.

When I have them split up the front of the card stock I have them put different types of lines in each rectangle. One for perpendicular lines, intersecting, and parallel lines.

The last rectangle is for Gene Davis.

We talk about Gene Davis the artist and what he did and his accomplishments. I show them different artworks and ask them about what he did and why it is so amazing.

Some of the students think that what he does isn't art and then we look at his artwork on scale about how big each painting is and how time consuming it is for each line.

So after the artist study we finished drawing and filling in each rectangle.

Some of the different artworks are down below:









         


At the end this is what our Gene Davis Inspired Wall looked like. Students got to take home another one of their creations to put on the fridge and remind them that parent-teacher conferences were coming up and I was looking forward to meeting them.

Parabola Gallery Walk

I am currently take a grad class called Sparking Student Curiosity at Doane College. This week we had to make a gallery walk that sparked student curiosity. I created a gallery walk that introduced students to parabolas.

Here are the images:

Activity:

Students will be put into groups of three (or you could come up with more images and have smaller groups) and as a group they will take notes from all of the students.  Each student will have a paper, but all students input will be put into each one. They can only record what others in their groups say. On the handout each student will have three columns to fill out:

• Descriptions of what students see in each image.
• What math do you see?
• What is commonalities between the photos?

Students will have 2-3 minutes at teach station (or photo).

Then when all the students have cycled through their groups they will have a short reflection of what they think we are going to study next. Then as a group we will talk about parabolas and introduce them.

YouTube Playlists for All Teachers

As almost all schools go Google, one thing you might take for granted is the use of YouTube and your own YouTube Channel.  YouTube is a great place to collect resources from all over to introduce topics or review content.

First thing you need to do to create a playlist is find a video.

This is one of my favorite videos (you can watch it here) to play before we begin our section on unit rates. I won't give students the question, but just let them watch the video. We will watch the video again with this in mind, "How many claps does he get in per second?" or "How many could he do in 5 minutes?"

It could be a bell-ringer for an Algebra 2 class or an extension activity for middle school. It is a great math video.

So, you found a video.

Now you need to click the "Add to" button below the video.


Next there is an option to add to playlist.



You can create a playlist or once you have created one add to the playlist you want to add to.

Here is the link for my math video collection: https://goo.gl/2aqJJM

The videos I add range from The Opposite of Infinity by Numberphile which offers higher level math videos to Practicing Free Throws to Beat a Pro by BuzzFeed.

I encourage all teachers to use their free YouTube channel with their school Google account. It is a great place to collect resources to use in your classroom.

Debates in Math

I have been looking over my Algebra 2 curriculum to find places where I could include debates in the math classroom.  I was trying to find ways of including more formal debates where students take in all of the information.  My goal is to give students a day to find all of the information, that night have them make a poster, meme, or infographic to demonstrate that learning.  The next day students will present their arguments to the class in a fishbowl activity.

1. The first would be about Functions, Equations, and Graphs.  Students would be split into groups of 2 and one would be graphs the other would be equations.  Students would have debate on which is a better demonstration of functions equations or graphs.
• Students would then have to produce a poster or meme.
• Then the next day students would argue about which is better.  A list of questions that I will pose to students to get them talking will be added later.
2. The second debate would be about Quadratic Functions and Equations. Same concept on groups of two but it would it include the best way to solve quadratics.
• This time students will be placed into groups:
• Completing the Square
• Quadratic Formula
• Graphing
3. The last one I will incorporate is probability.  I'm going to go a little off script and give them an article to read and then talk about analyzing data.  Is the article true or not students will have to determine if the samples and survey are sound. 

I will add more as I become more proficient in dealing with debates and keep you posted as we have them in class.

#12: Podcasts

I have been an avid listener of podcasts for the past two years.  My morning commute to and from work now tops a hour both directions and the radio just wasn't cutting it.  I had heard things about a new-"ish" podcast called Serial, which is amazing, but that got me hooked.  Now instead of listening to music, I listen to things I care about on Podcasts.

The best thing about podcasts from an educators perspective is that if you are 1-1 with iPads you can download them at school and have your students listen to them at home.  In my class I had students go to Podcasts and download an episode of the Math-Dude on Graphing Parabolas, they took notes as they went along and completed a worksheet after.

There are lots of great podcasts for any classroom including history, art, and science.

Completely Optional Knowledge Podcast is a great, short podcast for interesting science questions.

Presidential provides short biographies and interesting insights on the history of presidents leading up to the election.

Stuff You Should Know is a general podcast that informs on a wide range of subjects.  There are lots of great podcasts around and new ones become available everyday.

Next year I will try to incorporate this lesson, with the walking classroom.

#11 Gamifying the Classroom

We have spent a week reviewing for the 11th grade NeSA test.  To make it more exciting than doing worksheets, I decided to gamify the lesson.  Instead of doing review questions from Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2 classes on a worksheet I split the questions between Kahoot, Quizizz, and Quizalize.  Students worksheet looked like this one down below.

Students put the name of a country and the countries flag.  We then did three different quizzes on different platforms, students recorded their score, and the three highest scores got a prize.  Here are some example worksheets students filled out:

Students were more entertained and engaged than doing a worksheet.

Students did a great job, some of the quizzes were more difficult I will provide links to the games we played, but overall students learned more than doing a worksheet and giving feedback.  I posted a leaderboard the next day, students liked seeing who won and what country they were.

Quizizz Algebra Review

Kahoot! Geometry Quiz

Quizalize Algebra 2 Review

I will improve this lesson for next year, possibly including badges and holding the olympics over multiple days.  Students being this engaged will help students retain more information during the review and learn new content with more of a passion.

Basketball Substitution

In class we were struggling with the concept of substitution, we already talked about it for two days, we did a vocabulary activity and guided worksheet to help them, but after the second day they were still struggling.  With basketball starting soon, we took to the 92' courts and made a little explaination of what substitute means in basketball.  

Then we talked about how good Michael Jordan was and what players on the court could have made the Bulls just as good as Jordan alone, we then could substitute in different players to see what the best possible outcome was. Here is a picture.

Students seemed to like the explaination a little more, we did a few more example problems and students seemed to understand.

Zombies and Math (AAH!!)

Zombies and mathematics looks like it would be two things that didn't quite go together.  Andrew Miller had a project-based learning project about Zombie-based Learning.

With math and zombies most of the material has to do with diseases that increase at an exponential rate.  Students could analyze different population centers and predict its spread using exponential functions.  They could determine when everyone is infected and map the spread using the math data they calculate, or even explore the rate of decay.  Students could also investigate what happens when a certain number of people are vaccinated to help prevent the spread.

These are some ideas that have been implemented as part of a PBL project or would be a good entry point for zombie-based learning across the curriculum.

Zombie-based Learning

English to Spanish Math Glossary

Featured in today's post is an elementary school level mathematics glossary for English to Spanish glossary.  This works great for many teachers who teach in a ELL math classroom or in a high population of Hispanic students.  Some of these glossary terms work great in middle and high school math classrooms.

algebraic expression       expresión algebraica
algebraic patterns           patrones algebraicos
algebraic relationship      relación algebraica
algebraic relationships    relaciones algebraicas
algebraically                  algebraicamente

algorithm                       algoritmo
distributive property      propiedad distributiva
divide                           dividir
dividend                       dividendo
divisibility test               prueba de divisibilidad

geometric fact              hecho geométrico
geometric figure           figura geométrica
geometric pattern         patrón geométrico
geometric solid            sólido geométrico
geometry                     geometría

line                              línea
line graph                    gráfico lineal
line of symmetry          línea de simetría
line plot                      diagrama lineal
line segment                segmento lineal

See more glossary terms in spanish here: Glossary

Paper Doll Math

I have recently blogged about Ada Lovelace and her paper doll which could be used as a history piece in a history of mathematics center that students can learn about mathematics and how math was developed back in the day.  Today, are some activities that you can use in your classroom that revolve around paper dolls and mathematics.

Patterns: Figures alternate, for example: right arm up, left arm up, right arm, left arm.

Reflections: Students love that every doll is a flipped copy of the one next to it.  Technically, that's called a reflection, one of three kinds of geometry transformation students study in elementary school, the other two being rotation and translation.

Powers of Two: Fold the paper twice, you get four figures.  Fold the paper three times, you get 8 figures.  Fold four times, you get 16 figures.  Every fold is a power of two of the figures.

Multiplying fractions: Every time you fold, the dolls become half as wide.  That's a visual illustration of what it means to multiply a fraction, in this case x 1/2.  Or, if the first fold divides the paper in half, and the second fold divides it in quarters.

Learn more here: Paper Doll Math

View other activities and information here:
Math Manipulatives
Geometry of Folding
Probability

Beginning of the Year Survey Questions

I'm trying to piece together a beginning of the year student survey.  What are some questions you ask your students?

Name:

Please Call Me:

Home Phone:

Parent's Email:

Activities and Hobbies:

Favorite subject in school:

Why do you like math?

Why do you dislike math?

I obviously need more questions, comments are welcome below!

GIF's that Teach Math

There are many GIF's out there that are of funny cats and of many different movies.  I know that I love the occasional GIF's and especially when they are about math.  Here are some great GIF's that you can include in your classroom to spice up lessons and activities for students.






Find more here: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/math%20gif






Find other great GIF's here: 7 GIF's for Trigonometry