Modelling in Clash of Clans

September 24, 2014October 10, 2018 by Jon Orr

Here is a task I’ve been playing around with lately. Let me know what you think!!!!
Thinking of using this task with my grade 11s functions class/ or more advanced functions classes. I have recently been playing Clash of Clans and if you have played you know that you have to wait for items to be built/upgraded, etc. The time to wait changes based on the your progress and cost of the item/upgrade. You do have the option to SKIP the upgrade wait time by using gems. What has me wondering is that the amount of gems needed to skip an upgrade. What’s the relationship between upgrade time and gems? Our task is to see what that relationship is.

Act 1 : I’ll show this short video to my students:

I’ll ask for any questions the students had from watching the video and settle on —How many gems would it take to upgrade the town hall? — which will take 2 days.

Get the students to make some guesses…..

Act 2 :

Then get them discussing what other info we will need. I want them to come up with the idea they need more instances of upgrade times vs. gems. I can start to show them some pics…..was thinking of revealing each “point” at a time and getting then to guess!

Here comes the modelling time…….plop these down in Desmos. We’ll start to select a model based on the data we see:

premade desmos page with some sliders built in for each type of model.

Have them decide which model they like best for the answer…..use the model to come up with an answer. My guess is that students will assume linear and come up with an answer that is too high (I’ll update later after I use it with students). ……and then we can have the big reveal……

Act 3

Watch the video ….

Or use the image..

Sequel:

Find the cost of upgrading immediately…..how much wait time can you skip with $20?

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Minnie’s Juice Cup [3actMath]

July 11, 2014October 10, 2018 by Jon Orr

Here is a 3-Act Math problem I’ve been working on. My first unit in the fall is measurement and I wanted something to do with volume.

Minnie’s Juice Cup!

Act 1:

Question: How many juice boxes will fit in the cup?

Act 2:

Make them guess for each of these measurements.

I am open to suggestions on how to handle the two different diameters. I tried averaging them and came up with a pretty accurate answer.

Act 3:

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SmartCar Smash!

May 17, 2014October 10, 2018 by Jon Orr

On Friday I attended the Mobile Summit 2014 at Lambton College. The last keynote speaker was Dr. Alec Couros. He showed a tweet I found particularly interesting!

This guy thinking he was quite witty ended up getting a reply from the SmartCar people, check it out!

My first thought was that is hilarious!! My second thought was can i make a math problem out of this?

Continue reading →

Corner to Corner – 3 Act Lesson

May 16, 2014October 10, 2018 by Jon Orr

I was recently in a cross panel learning team meeting and we were discussing open questions/problems to give our students. A fellow teacher, Marcus, gave the following problem to his class:

Find the distance from one corner of the box to the opposite diagonal corner.

Using this idea, along with the learning team’s focus on getting students to estimate before solving problems [as a way to engage all our students] I created the following 3Act math lesson. (thanks Dan Meyer for the tips)

Act 1- Corner to Corner
Give your students the weird little video.

Ask students What do you wonder? Or What would you like to know? Or What questions do you have?
Take the questions from students (all of them, write them on the board).

If the question: How long is the string? does not come out from them, pose it to them and say you would like to solve that one first!

Ask them to guess the length of the string, record guesses on the board.

Ask students to discuss with a partner and then share with you what information they would need to find the distance.

After they ask for the dimensions of the room share with them (one at a time) these pictures.

After each picture get the students to guess the lengths….then reveal the values. This part will be engaging for all! Hopefully they cheer or boo when after you reveal the lengths.

and the reveal……