Trivia Crack X: Quick Questions

Quick One Question Quizzes Using Trivia Crack X

One of my favorite games to play in my spare time is playing Trivia Crack. Now you can create your own Trivia Crack questions with Trivia Crack X with your own pictures and videos. The downfall is that you can only create one question at a time and not a whole game.

Here are the steps to create your own:

1. Find a question that you would normally put in a quiz. Take a screenshot.

2. Add the picture into Trivia Crack X.


3. Insert your answers and non-answers into a quiz.

      

4. Preview your final video.



You could use your video to play during a lesson, pause the video before it gives you the answer and have the students write down the answer.

Children's Books for Algebra 2

Children's books are are a great way of introducing concepts and to help build a classroom community.  Students love sitting together on the floor and listen to a teacher read aloud a picture book. Letting a picture book and prior knowledge give them a hook into the curriculum.

Here are three great books to help teach some Algebra 2 concepts.

Follow the Line
by Laura Ljungkvist

This picture book goes from the city to farms. Each scene contains questions designed to get children counting, thinking, and observing.  Children would count 5-6 times on each page.

In Algebra 2 class I am going to read aloud the book, but instead of going over the questions in the book I am going to ask different questions.

What types of lines do you see?
Which ones of these are functions?
Which of these are not functions?
What type of slope do some of these lines have?

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
by Mordicai Gerstein

This picture book is about Philippe Petit who tightrope walked across from one World Trade Center tower to the other. He performed tricks, walking, and dancing for an hour. The book has great and different types of numbers you could number talk during the read aloud.

The way that I am going to use the book in Algebra 2 is to get students use to the idea that mathematical models illustrate the behavior of real world situations.

During the talk I am going to ask the students at specific times to model different situations in the book and ask them about the math being used.




Lifetime: Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives
by Lola M. Schaefer

This book talks about the different animals what can happen in their entire lifetime.

An example, in one lifetime an alligator will build 22 nests and lay 550 eggs.

In Algebra 2 we are going to use this book to introduce students to exponential expressions and how they can be written in different ways.  We are going to talk about If one alligator lays 550 eggs, and then one of those alligators lays 550 eggs. How many alligators in twenty generations?

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.

Lines of Ballerina Dancers

At the Joslyn Art Museums Thursdays for Teachers we got the chance to sketch 4 ballerinas from the Nebraska Ballet Company. Our workshop first focused on the lines of a ballerina dancer in different poses. It got me thinking about the different lines of a ballerina and in Algebra 2 we are currently going over linear equations. What linear equations do a ballerina make? So I put the pictures in Desmos and this is what I found.

Here are three lines I found.

After I graphed these I thought what a great activity this would be for students. Students could do their own poses and graph them, they could be shooting a basketball, yoga poses, or football poses. 

Then I thought what if we did this every unit and students could reflect on line families and how they relate.  It is one of my big goals I want to student to learn this year: Function families share similar graphs, behaviors, and properties.

Then I tried the same graph with parabolas, which is our next unit. Almost seemed to work better.

Domino's Pizza Linear Math Activity

Mathalicious has lots of great activities, but this one might be my favorite.

Here is the link: http://www.mathalicious.com/lessons/domino-effect

All I do as the teacher is give them this prompt:

Domino's pizza is delicious. The company is tech savvy, you can order online and even track your pizza delivery.  The website is great, but not transparent.  Domino's does not tell you how much the component pieces cost; they only tell you an item's final price after you build it. Your job is to find the base price of a pizza and find the cost per additional topping. You need to have enough information to do a 2 minute presentation to the class.




I don't grade the presentations, but look for slope, y-intercept, a graph, an equation, and an explanation of the graph.  It is a fun 30 minute project that fits at the end of the unit.

Algebra Racecars

There are lots of ways to do this activity, if you want your students to construct the same type of car (which is fine) you can follow these links, then come on back.

http://www-tc.pbskids.org/designsquad/pdf/parentseducators/4wheelcar-english.pdf

or

https://www.questacon.edu.au/outreach/programs/science-circus/videos/balloon-powered-car

One way is I have some of the materials that students may need and some others. These are the items that I bring to school:

• balloons
• bottle caps
• smaller dowel rods (from our shop teacher)
• cardboard
• tape
• rubberbands

I give them 15 minutes to create a car. I normally have them as a group create the straw and balloon together so they have the same propulsion system. They have 15 minutes to create and test their car before we record them with our iPad. I normally have them record 2-3 times just to make sure, during this time other students are collecting how far the balloon goes and the time. 

Our next step is to collect our data. 

I ask students to find the speed their car went and ask them to put a graph on Desmos. We then collect our data together as a class and talk about what each line means who's went furthest who had the top speed.

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.

Project Based Learning

I have been looking at implementing Project-based learning the past year.  I wanted to do a full chapter or section that implemented project based learning, but felt that Algebra 2 is difficult for students, but I think I found the solution.

The project that I have had the past few years is students create their own dice (2 years ago) and 3D print their own dice and find the theoretical and experimental probability (Last year).  I thought this was a good end of the chapter project.  

Now I want to make this my project based learning chapter.

Key Knowledge, Understanding, and Success Skills

I want students to work in groups of 4 and use collaboration skills for them to work on the project together.  The standards that they will cover (using the Nebraska Math Standards):

MA 11.4.1 Representations: Students create displays that represent data.

MA 11.4.2 Analysis and Applications: Students will analyze data to address the situation.

MA 11.4.3 Probability: Students will interpret and apply concepts of probability.

Challenging Problem or Question

The students challenging problem is to create a new dice for a nearby casino and find a dice where the "house" wins over 50% of the time, but not more than 60%. Students are to create a presentation with their dice and their data to a selection of students and teachers. Students will share with other students their presentation and questions.  Students will have a chance to critique and revise before doing their final presentation.

The problem I am having is making their learning public.  How can students take their learning global?

Rational or Irrational? That is the Question.

One of my favorite beginning of the year activities is a card sort that we do that reviews if different numbers are irrational or rational. Students are placed into groups of 4 and have to reason with one another about the placement of each number.

Here are a few groups placing their numbers:

Here are some example numbers we had:

Here are some finished products:

This was a great activity to get students use to classroom procedures and routines.  You can find the activity here: http://map.mathshell.org/lessons.php?unit=9105&collection=8&redir=1

The activity was in groups and went through each one large group.  I had students explain why they put them in certain categories and had a classroom discussion if they agreed or not.  Some could be put into more than one category depending on the explanation.  It was a fun experience.

Beginning of the Year

As we come down to the final week before school starts, I'm getting back in the swing of waking up (semi) early, but still going to bed late. Since I am teaching three new preps my focus will be less on Algebra 2, but it is still my favorite class.

Sequence of Topics

We use Pearson Algebra 2 books, I try to follow the sequencing, but sometimes it doesn't make sense.

Chapter 1- Expressions, Equations, and Inequalities
Chapter 2- Functions, Equations, Graphs
Chapter 3- Linear Systems
Chapter 4- Quadratic Functions
Chapter 5- Polynomials
Chapter 6- Radicals
Chapter 7- Probability and Statisitics
Chapter 8- Trigonometry
Chapter 9- Sequences
Chapter 10- Logarithms
Chapter 11- Rational Functions
Chapter 12- Conic Sections

First Week Activities

To start out with on the first day, not all of our students have iPads yet, so we do a Math About Me to get an easy A and start the year on a positive foot. Students need ten numbers that describe themselves and their picture in the middle or on a presentation, could be digital or paper copies. If students hand in a paper copy it goes on the wall to be my first student work of the year.

Second day I am going to start with a BreakOutEDU game, to show them that this year math will look and feel a little different, I like to focus on activities and projects!

Goals

Find better ways to use the iPad, for activities instead of presenting or worksheets.

Use time more effectively, get students use to bell to bell.

Remember that math isn't serious.

Icebreakers 

Mentioned above, but I do try to learn all my students names the first two days even though the shy ones might squeak through to the following week.

Class Set Up

I am playing around with different organization, but I think I've settled on groups of 4. 

Video Game Success: Making Video Games with Math

Start with Pixel Press Floors

Pixel Press Floors allows you to create your own video game.  In our algebra and algebra 2 units we talk about lines and graphing lines for a solid part of our curriculum.  I wanted students to collaborate and have an ending project that brought a final bang to our unit.

This app allows you to draw on screen (in paper mode) and draw out the different levels of the game. There are a ton of lesson plans and tried and true ideas here: http://www.projectpixelpress.com/education

The Rules for the Project

• Student's need to create at least one level where they have an undefined, positive, negative, and zero slope.  They also need to have at least one other slope that is different from the rest (e.g. y=-3x instead of y=-x.)
• Student's level needs to be playable, you need to be able to get from beginning to end as a player of the game.
• The student's need to take a screen shot of their different levels to show their different slopes and use Desmos to graph each of the different slopes.

Here is an example level:

Students final examples should look something like this:

I want students to have a different final project.  Students will peer assess with others in the room.  Student's will need three other people to play their level and look over their paper they will have to write.  They will have a rubric to fill out about the playability of the game and the features of the game.

How Infographics Boost Math

• 65% of learners are visual learners.
• Looking at and reflecting on data is something all students struggle with.
• Infographics make data easier to understand.

At the beginning of next year I want students take their knowledge and apply it more often.  We normally have a day lesson on classifying rational numbers.  Next year after I give students the lesson they normally have a card sort they do in groups, it is a fun activity and gets them to work together early in the year.

After they are done with the card sort their homework will be to create an infographic.  I will have students download Canva. Canva is a graphic design app that allows students (and teachers) to create presentations, handouts, and other graphics such as infographics.  (I use Canva to create my presentations and handouts for conferences)

Student's will create an infographic on how to classify rational numbers and will be hung up around the room.

Here is an example I made earlier today:

This is a simple mock-up and the rubric for the assessment is yet to come, but having students demonstrate their knowledge in a graphical way will get students on the right path of thinking when it comes to math next year.

Top 10 Apps for Making Innovators

In "The Innovator's Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity" by George Couros he talks about getting teachers to foster an environment of wonder, exploration, and forward-thinkers.  Couros goes on to state that to have innovative students we need innovative educators.  Here I give you 15 apps to get students to develop the skills and create learning learning experiences to release your student's talent.  These are in no particular order, if I forgot any that you think should be mentioned put them in the comments down below.

1. MSQRD (Masquerade) (free)

This app allows students to record themselves in 30 seconds.  The most amazing part of this app is that you can apply filters and animations over your face like SnapChat.  This app allows students to publish to Twitter if you have a classroom hashtag or students can send you an email with the video inclosed.  They have different filters in the picture I took a picture with the American flag, student's could record their voices over a different flag from a country of their choice.

2. Pixel Press Floors (free)

This app allows you to create your own video game.  It allows you to draw on screen (in paper mode) and draw out the different levels of the game. There are a ton of lesson plans and tried and true ideas here: http://www.projectpixelpress.com/education

Once you get going you can create different levels of complexity that include different problem solving steps.  In my class students create their own and test it as an assessment and students rank its difficulty level and math included.

3. Morphi (free)

Morphi is an app that allows students to create and print a 3D model to a 3D printer directly from their iPad.  Students in my math class made weird 3D dice and we found the experimental and theoretical probability after they printed them.  At the time we did not have a working 3D printer so we printed them at the DoSpace in Omaha.  You can check that out here.  Morphi is a great tool I haven't found another that works as well for high school students without moving to Google SketchUp or another computer program.  They have an educational app, but currently costs $8.99, which might be worth the purchase if you had one iPad in your classroom.

4. Tickle (free)

Is a one stop shop for coding devices.  I use this app with my students to code a BB-8 with artimetic sequences and later in the year we code for graphing points using our Parrot Drones. This app is extremely hands on when it comes to coding software on the iPad.  Its ease and layout makes it easy for students to pick up and 'fly' with.

5. Locks ($1.99)

Locks is our only paid app, because you only need one for your classroom.  BreakoutEDU will be a top 10 educational company by the end of the decade, because BreakoutEDU thrives on bringing growth mindset of problem solving and critical thinking to the forefront of education.  If you haven't seen BreakoutEDU before I would suggest touring their website before purchasing here.  The goal of BreakoutEDU game is to get out a series of locks before the time expires, but with the app you don't need locks just app. So the $90 box is the same thing as the $1.99 app.

6. Seesaw (free)

Seesaw has been my go to blogging platform this past year with my students.  This collaborative app allows teachers and students to have a class blog for free.  I use to use KidBlog.org, but now they charge $20 for the same thing that Seesaw does. (And it does it better.)

The ease to use Seesaw is signing up and giving students something to put in their folder.  With ease of use and a free place for students to publish to the web, makes it an ideal tool of any innovator.

7. Block Craft 3D (free)

My students love Minecraft, but in the app store Minecraft is quite expensive especially for an educator.  The equivalent is a free app Block Craft 3D which allows students the same experience as Minecraft, but without the price.  The only thing I wish Block Craft 3D had was the ability to communicate with others in the game.  

Otherwise we use this app in my Standards class especially since it easier to talk about volume, surface area, perimeter, and other geometrical terms with a visual that they made.

8. Padlet (free) 

Padlet is an old-y, but goody.  This app never disappoints when you have students collaborating in groups.  I use this in all my group projects to have students brainstorm and sort their brainstorming into groups.  It is a digital, yet concrete way of digital communication with an iPad.  This communications tool is a great tool that all innovators should have in their repertoire if they are heading to college, workplace, or even high school. 

9. Bloxels Builder (free)

Bloxels is another app made by the same company that makes Pixel Press Floors where you can create your own video game.  This app is great for more elementary or middle school classrooms.  You can buy the bloxels or use the app in the same way where you fill them out to make different levels.

Great app to start making students problem solvers of making difficult puzzles and levels for other students.

10. Typorama (free)

The last app is Typorama, this app takes pictures from the internet, library, and camera roll and allows you to insert text and filters over the top.  This is perfect for having students make their own memes and infographics.  This app is high quality I use it when I take pictures or post to Twitter, because the detail level is incredible.

This app is perfect for the innovator who takes notes in a unique way and produces great visuals.

Gas Station Problem and Unit Rates

I was at Hy-Vee the other day filling up using our fuel save points when an interesting question popped into my head.  I was thinking if you were a gas station attendant how could you know if a person was using a fuel saver and which pump had the highest fuel saver discount based on the number of gallons and fuel price.

I made this activity to engage student thinking about Unit Rates and instead of fuel saver points they have to find which pumps are losing them money.

So I creepily took down the notes of every pump at the local Hy-Vee gas station, luckily enough I did the math on them all and had some surprising results.

The assignment is here: https://goo.gl/BYaiSn

It focuses on higher thinking about unit rates than we might typically cover.

After students complete this part of the task they have follow up questions:

1. Which pumps need to be fixed?
2. How much money was lost if we make $.10 on each gallon sold? Show your work.
3. How much money did we make?
4. How did you find your answers? (Write one paragraph)