This was our multi-day, curriculum-spiralled, activity this week!
Let’s get curious!!…..I showed this video from Andrew Stadel, and took questions & wonderings:
We settled, (I chose) on the question on how many paper balls would fill a bin! They made predictions, too high, too low and right on!
They made paper balls and found their diameter. We agreed that each ball could be different so we recorded everyone’s diameter and averaged them to give the “average ball size”
Since we are spiralling the curriculum in grade 9 applied, my math task choice is getting very picky! I always want to uncover more that one expectation in a lesson/task! In this task we used volume of spheres, solving proportions, and properties of linear relations.
There were good conversations on this piece! I’m always surprised by how much kids know! Someone asked for the rate of water!!!! Wowsers! I assumed I might have to dig to get them to ask for that one. They also wanted me to say how much a balloon will hold…..which is where I wanted to direct them first.
Info to give and record:
As always, I made them guess for it! After revealing 12 inches….we converted to centimeters. Next it was their turn to go ahead and find the volume of the balloon. I find it so valuable to have discussions on why use a sphere to model the volume? Will we be correct? Is it ok we’re wrong?
Volume of the sphere/balloon
Handout
Solutions
The extension is how we practiced solving a few proportions. We solved for the volume when the time was 10 seconds, 20 seconds, until kids saw the pattern.
10 seconds
After filling the table out, we found the first differences, discussed direct vs. partial linear relations!
The last few semesters I ran this two-day lesson on distance-time graphs. Today I added a new twist on Day 2.
Recap: Day 1 – A few prediction videos on water height in a cup vs. time. Then WATERLINE by Desmos!
Day 2: Today
Warm Up – We reviewed the previous day’s work by choosing one of the cups from the picture and drawing a water-height vs. time graph.
Not surprisingly, no students chose to draw the graph for the Stanley Cup. After they make their sketches we dove into using the CBR Rangers from Vernier just like on Day 2 from the previous post. They walked in front of the Ranger taking various different walks and we all saw their distance-time graphs in real-time. For each walk the students made prediction graphs on their whiteboards before seeing the live graph.
I wanted more predictions from them so I showed them a video I made. They were to watch the video and make a prediction graph of my distance away from the camera vs. time.
After take up of this graph they were to create their own video on the iPads. Each pair of students we’re given a scenario to film that described motion.
Here are two motion videos they filmed: Very basic to start!
They had to create their distance-time graph and hide it under the flap on the vertical whiteboards.
Pairs then went on a gallery walk. They watched each student made video, graphed the matching distance-time graph and then checked the answer under the flap.
Kids enjoyed it and they practiced lots of different distance-time graphs.
Thanks for reading!!!
After completing the two Making Algebra Meaningful activities we spent time using algebra tiles to help collect like 
terms and simplify algebraic expressions. Our math department has sets of these tiles, but over the last couple of years I have used the Algebra Tiles app from BrainingCamp. It’s a pretty decent app that allows 3 modes. Continue reading
