Stop Motion or Slow Motion.

  In geometry, we started doing transformations.  We are spending time watching videos, doing worksheets and all the usual activities.  I thought about having students do a comic strip on transformations but then I realized this is a perfect topic for animation, or stop motion or slow motion. 

Since transformations are all abut moving objects or shapes around, creating a movie of some sort is a perfect activity for this.  I have an inservice Thursday and Friday of this week, so I could create a couple short videos of my own to demonstrate what could be done.  Most of my students need to see examples of completed work so they know what the final product might look like.

I love finding activities to use in my classes that allow the artist in my students emerge to create.  In my Algebra I class, I plan to have students draw pictures and label the slope on each part.  This shows them that slope can be found everywhere. 

I think I"ll have the students go outside, take pictures of the play ground, the hills, houses, satellite dishes, boats, gas storage containers,  and other places around town.  They can then mark the photo's up, showing the slope just as I did in the picture.  I think they need to see how math is found in real life.    They could even find pictures on the web and mark in the slope.  After all, math is all around us.