Day 22

Warm up today was from Would You Rather:

The groups blew my expectations out of the water on this one. They asked for the weights of the coins and then went to work. 

One group looked at using copper pennies vs. zinc pennies in comparison to the quarters.

Most groups wanted the quarters regardless of the money…less to carry around.

We picked up where we left off from the credit card scenario bills. As we progress through the bills students saw what happens when you don’t pay off your entire bill. As a class we worked out interest charges added to the new bill, new statement amounts, and minimum payments for a variety of scenarios. We still did not complete all problems before class ended.

Day 23:

Warm up:

We brought up the Clock app on our iPads to help answer this problem. We reviewed converting times from the 24 hour clock and looked at timezones across the world.

Next, we worked on solving Robert Kaplinsky’s “Is Gas Cheaper With Cash or Credit Card” problem.

I showed this image:

Students noticed a variety of things including that gas here seems to cost more if you use a card. It was a no-brainer that they would choose to purchase with cash. Like in Robert’s lesson, I handed them a paper credit card and asked, “If you use this card does that change your mind?”

We discussed what cash back meant. Students worked on the boards to see if getting 2% back (2% off the price) changed their initial decision. They calculated this for each of the three gas types. I was caught up in good discussions with them and I forgot to take pictures of their work.

For the remainder of class they worked and submitted their credit card scenarios.