would you rather

Fav & Fix – Nov 25

by Jon Orr

For the Favourite & Fix series I’m posting one idea from my lessons that week that was my favourite and one topic that I need help on. Something I hope to fix. I’m hoping that in the comments or on Twitter (#Fav&Fix) you amazing readers can help me out with some hints, tips, and suggestions.

The Fav

WouldYouRatherMath.com has been a huge part of the MEL3E course that I’ve written about here, here, and here. Having my students pair up and work on the chalkboards and vertical whiteboards toward a choice opened up great discussion, and improved our classroom atmosphere! For a while our classroom atmosphere was a little shakey….but the warm ups and paired work has brought us closer together. Download the MS Word docuement that has all the warm ups week by week for this class. The idea and format of the document I took from Mary Bourassa’s Warm up file.

This week we completed this one:

I asked the class to make a gut check on which option pulled them immediately….and most said drive yourself. Ok….let’s verify that gut check. “Is there anything we would need to know more about?” A few students had some ideas and we worked as a class to narrow down some open items.

img_2541

From here they were off to the walls to justify their choice. And I love that there were still more questions from every group

  • How many people are going?
  • Does each have to pay $40 each way?
  • Do you have to drive to the shuttle?
  • Do you have to pay for parking in option 2?
  • Are we taking into account getting a speeding ticket? insurance on the car? wear and tear?

img_2542

I let the groups come up with answers to their own questions…..I added in, “if you drive yourself, is it likely that you only need to park for one day?”

The conversation that comes out of this warm up was great for us. So many questions and lots of answers. Most groups changed their minds after great debate to take the shuttle (if they were going on a trip for a week)…..less hassle.

The Fix

This is not really a fix yet…but I wanted to grab some thoughts from you. On the weekend Jules and I worked on some puzzles. After we dumped the puzzles out I would ask her how big would the puzzle be? She would look up and with that wonder look and say pretty big or pretty small, but nothing exact….she’s only 6. So I would narrow the question down. How many pieces would be along the bottom? Along the side? And she would make a guess. We would do the puzzle and then find out.

This got me thinking.

Read more here

MEL3E Day 22 & 23

by Jon Orr

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. screen-shot-2016-10-06-at-9-10-38-am

img_2231

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

img_2232

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.

img_2235

img_2233

Day 23:

Warm up:

screen-shot-2016-10-07-at-11-41-48-am

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.

img_1895

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

I showed this image:

screen-shot-2016-10-11-at-11-47-38-am

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?”

screen-shot-2016-10-11-at-11-47-27-am

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.

 

MEL3E – Day 12

by Jon Orr

Our warm today was from wouldyourathermath.com. This warm up piqued their interest quite a bit. We did a gut check….and most of the class wanted the quarters. In their pairs they went to the vertical surfaces to show some evidence to support their decisions.

We looked up the thickness of a quarter (.175 cm) and they chose their tallest person to measure so they could compare.

img_2114img_2115

img_2116

I wanted us to not only look at some costs involved with travelling but introduce calculating tax on items. So I kept the collaborative work going with some Agree or Disagree statements.
screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-12-24-47-pm

We looked up what a bus pass costs for a student.

screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-12-18-44-pm

Again they went to the vertical boards to work through this problem. I had to review with a few of them how to calculate a percent of a number.

img_2121

What I loved about this problem was the talk that was happening. Students were verbally comparing the advantages and disadvantages of using the bus vs. renting a car. Listing advantages and disadvantages is one of our expectations but it was nice to see the talk instead of us listing them down in a workbook or worksheet.

We continued the decision making with a few more agree or disagree statements.

screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-11-45-14-am

Click to download the PDF

We ran out of time just as the majority of students finished the page.