A Few Updates

Update 1:
I finally finished Act 3 for my Deodorant lesson. I hope you check it out and can give me some feedback; I think it could be much better with your help. If nothing else, check out how long it took to use 5 sticks of deodorant. Mathematical Modeling should really be at the forefront of this task. It might appear linear, but I would bet a year's supply of deodorant that an adolescent's deodorant use will be far different than mine. I also guarantee students will think of variables ranging from climate to age to geographical location to genetics to more. I think you'll have some excellent conversations with the deodorant task. My favorite part is the sequel: How many sticks of deodorant would one use in a lifetime?

Way back when this task first started, I opened up a little estimation competition in the comments at 101qs. Don't listen to a word Nathan Kraft says. The person with the closest guess would win an Estimation 180 prize. With so many close estimates, the following gentlemen will be the first to receive the new Estimation 180 stickers, hot off the press!

Congratulations to:
1st place: Chris Robinson (May 14, 2014)
2nd place: Robert Kaplinsky (May 5, 2014)
2nd place: Michael Fenton (May 15, 2014)
3rd place: James Cleveland (May 3, 2014)

Update 2:
Estimation 180 will be getting a facelift and other updates over the summer. Here are a few things to look out for:

• New logo
• New fields for entering student estimates
• Clean spreadsheets containing "other estimates"
• Updated Lessons
• Search by Categories
• Sentence frames for student reasoning

I'm most excited about the last update; sentence frames. I occasionally browse over student responses and notice many students entered "I guessed." I think it would be extremely helpful for teachers to provide their students with sentence frames in order to better articulate their reasoning. I will be focusing on this tool in upcoming presentations and workshops.

The new logo was done by my niece. I love her simple design, the two 180 degree arrows, the metric reference, and her idea to transform me into a stick man. That reminds me, I still owe her a pizza!

I hope to get a few t-shirts made too. You can sport them at your next PLC, department meeting, casual Friday, or math conference. Any takers?

Update 3:
I've accepted a Teacher On Special Assignment (TOSA) position with my district for next year. It's a bittersweet feeling at this point. On one hand, I'm very excited because I'll be working at various secondary sites throughout my district, collaborating with other math teachers, helping design lessons and implementing various technology. My official title will be a Digital Learning Coach. I hope to seek advice from people like John Stevens, who have been doing this for some time now. As I pack up my room, I already miss my own classroom and students. However, I look forward to learning a great deal from the teachers I will be fortunate to work with and the students I'll be able to interact with at each site.

Updates,
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Going Round In Circles

Whenever I start talking about circles with my students, I use this little wager.

I get students to pick one of the three choices and work the room, looking for a brave student I know will deliver my nachos. I talk up the nachos (and the circumference) as much as possible. Anywhere from 90 to 100 percentage of students will say the circumference is shorter than the height of the water bottle. Let's see if I win nachos or I let my students go to lunch early.

Okay, so double or nothing? I don't bring in this glass, but I do use a taller cup with a really small circular base. Where do you stand on the double-or-nothing wage? Did I give you enough information to take the bet? With a glass like this, you should get at least one student to keep you honest and ask which circumference of the glass you'll be measuring.

This little wager (activity) allows me a quick introduction and fun application of circumference. Somewhere I'll discuss vocabulary and formulas with students while giving them a graphic organizer they can fill out.

I'll usually do an activity where students measure the circumference and diameter of objects in order to discover the relationship of Pi. Stuff very similar to Fawn's Friday Bubbles. Note to self, use Excel (or a spreadsheet) to keep track of those measurements. I've also explored Rolling Tires in the past. This year, I brought the wheel to the class for a small activity. A physical wheel. The wheel from my son's wheelbarrow.

The small activity was for students to guess how many rotations this wheel (8-inch diameter) would make from one wall of my class to the other wall. Students were able to see how circumference can take on the meaning of a tire rotation, hence the graphic I made above. It was sweet to see students roll the wheel across my 21-foot long room and actually get 10 rotations like the math predicted. If you have a wheel like this, bring it in and do this activity.

We also did these awesome lessons. And. I. Mean. AWESOME!
Pizza Pi by Mathalicious and
Penny Circles from Team Desmos and Dan Meyer.

There's so much to do with circles and so little time. 

Round and round,
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Fun With A Sticky

Earlier this year, I wrote about Fun With A Dot and A Line, a Math 6 lesson I loved because it had:

• A simple question/task.
• A competition.
• Student creativity.
• Students assessing the work of each other (accountability).
• Students defining the necessary vocabulary/rules.
• Students determining the necessary tools to help solve the task. 

As my 7^th graders approached surface area, I prepared a few activities in preparation for File Cabinet. Here is one of those activities. I give you Fun With A Sticky:

Launch:

Hand each student a 3” x 3” sticky as they enter. Post the following on the board:

Explore (creativity):

A few students might do something like this.

Give the class a hint or two (if they need it):

1. This can be done with four lines.
2. Think Tic-Tac-Toe

Here's what we're going for:

If a student is still clueless, encourage them to look around and see what their classmates are doing. As the teacher, keep your eyes peeled for students who are approaching this with some creativity. Sarah and Pricila used the straightedge of their binders to draw lines. Gerardo tried folding the sticky in thirds like this.  

Student accountability:

When done, have each student write their name on the back of the sticky. Have each group of 3-4 students decide who has the best 9 squares and bring that one sticky up to the teacher. In no particular order, place them under the document camera for all students to see. Without sharing, ask each student to quietly (mentally) pick the top 2 stickies they feel have the best 9 squares. 

Vocabulary/Rules:

Ask students for input. 

Me: "Without telling me which stickies you’ve picked, how are you determining which sticky has the best 9 squares?" 

Jesus: They drew straight lines.

Carla: They are perfect squares.

Have the class define a perfect square.

Carla: Each side is the same length

I now had students take their top 2 and pick their favorite one. Somehow get your students to vote; little sheets of scratch paper, SmartBoard Responders, iPads, etc. I labeled each sticky alphabetically to avoid “this” sticky and “that” sticky. I had each student stand up. I then said, "Sit down when I say the letter of your sticky with the best 9 squares."

Necessary Tools:

They narrowed it down to about 3 stickies and gave great rules for finding the best 9 squares.

Me: What tools can I use to make it even more precise?

Student: A ruler. 

Me: Ok. What do I measure and what am I looking for on these stickies?

Here’s where you get students to discuss (or discover) how each square should have a width of 1 inch and a length of 1 inch. In other words, you’re defining a square inch with your students. Okay, there will be some "squares" that are just garbage and can be eliminated by eyeballing them. However, here's where you get to be dramatic with your students. Get them worked up. Ask them which ones you should measure. Mess with them a little and joke with them how they're unable to determine the correct "squares". Have fun with it. Either way, make sure students see the squares being measured. If I had more time, I could have redistributed the stickies and passed out rulers for the students to measure each other's "squares". You can see from this picture that the winning sticky note had a total of 3 "perfect squares."

Congratulations to my winners! They received a brand-new whiteboard marker.

Here’s the icing on the cake (and lesson design telling me something wonderful just happened):

• Itzco wanted a chance to do it again. He'd been sleepy in class all week.
• Genesis wanted a ruler if we did a second round. Let's just say her attitude toward math all week was subpar and she has difficulty being a self-starter.
• Students wanted a chance to improve and try again. Especially students who initially drew ridiculous "squares".

There it is, Fun With A Sticky. Here's that list one more time:

• A simple question/task.
• A competition.
• Student creativity.
• Students assessing the work of each other (accountability).
• Students defining the necessary vocabulary/rules.
• Students determining the necessary tools to help solve the task. 

Sticky,

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