Octane ratings and algebra.

I found a nice little exercise in Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School vol. 19, No. 4, November 2013 called Octane Algebra. It is on the Math for real page aka "When will I ever use this?".  The exercise introduces how the octane rating is calculated and what the standard ratings are for types of gas. During the warm-up, I asked "What is Octane?" and several used the iPad to find an answer.  I needed to build prior knowledge because out here in the bush of Alaska, most student just buy gas.  I do not have a vehicle so I don't buy gas out here.  I told the students the next time they fill their snowmachine or 4 wheeler (ATV) look to see what octane rating the gas has.  One student told me, it is not there but knowing the young person, they didn't even look.
The worksheet even has them figuring out a range of possibilities based on the fact that the gasoline is a mixture of gasoline and ethanol fuel.  The last activity on the sheet has them looking for possible values to produce certain rates and then graphing the results.  This is a very nice activity as it has them learning about real world applications for averages.
I am planing on extending this activity to have students research a variety of snowmachines, ATV's, cars, and trucks to see what the recommended octane rating is.  Once they have the data, I want them to create infographics, fill out an excel sheet and create graphs.  I might even have them create a presentation/video/ etc to share the information.  This activity has a lot of potential for literacy and technology.

Ways to help students learn material.

Today in Geometry, I had the students work with parallelograms and their rules.  I am toying with a couple ideas to help students learn the rules so they can apply the rules.  I have thought about having students take pictures of each problem, show their work and then import the problem into Haiku Deck and then explain which theorem allowed them to solve the problem.  When they are done, they will show me the presentation.  This will give them the opportunity to connect the various theorems to the actual work.  I've noticed in the past my students do not always connect the theorems with what they are doing.  I should have things done and able to report back in a few days.
I came across something in yahoo news about landlords in San Francisco who are offering people money to move out of their rent controlled apartments so the apt can be rerented for a higher amount.  One family who lived in an apt for 24 years was being offered $50,000 to move out of their $549 a month apt.  This is enough for me to write some neat problems and to educate my students about rent control.  This is something they may never run into so I hope to expand their horizons.

Interesting perspective on teaching math.

I was doing research on the internet to find some real world math problems that I could have my students do and I stumbled across this blog http://blog.keycurriculum.com/2012/03/what-do-you-wonder-real-world-math-problems-are-everywhere/
In it, the author has a short video of Annie Fetter from the Math Forum in which she says we should use senarios with questions like What do you notice? and What do you wonder? You are not after the students to actually solve it just look at it and find information.  The class has a discussion on it and then for homework you have the students write about what they talked about in class that day.  Toward the end of the entry are three websites, one of which has some great things to use for that. 
This is a cool way to integrate writing into the classroom while being able to assess student thinking and understanding of certain math ideas. 
I am always looking for new ways to integrate writing and to assess student understanding.  My students due to cultural influences are afraid to make a mistake and want you to check all their problems.  I need to help them be less afraid of making mistakes and being willing to work independently.
If anyone has ideas or scenarios I could use in a High School math class, I would love to hear.

Surface area

One of the topics I have been covering is surface area.  I have discovered that most of my students have issues with understanding it and understanding scale.  One project I have had students in the past is to design their dream bedroom.  They were to draw a floor plan, the walls, and ceiling with all lights, windows, and doors marked in.  Many of my students took it a step further by adding in the furniture.  The problem came with furniture and windows that were out of proportion with the scale for the room.  The surface area comes in when they add the cost of flooring, wall covering, and ceiling up to get a total cost for finishing the bedroom.  I found a nice app called room planner which allows students to create a floor plan, add windows, doors, and furnishings and view it in 3-D.  I think  having a 3D view will help students "see" their dream room better.
In reality, this is really the only type of surface area that most of my students will use in their lives.  I know very few folks who need to find the surface area of a pyramid, or cone or other shape like that.  I am writing this in the airport as I wait for my connection in a couple of hours.
I hope to revisit the volume app in a couple of days.

More thoughts on Infographics plus apology.

I've been playing with infographics and discovered a couple web sites that allow me to make my own infographics.  I have been playing around with them.  One is www.easel.ly and the other is visual.ly.  I've only played with each site a short time but so far the first one is much easier to use for me.  I am going to check out some other sites over the summer and play with them to see which I like best.  I want to use them to produce posters that I will target exactly what I want covered on certain topics.  I want to bring in pictures such as a slide for slow and show that the stairs going up have positive slope and the slide down is negative.  My students need to see real world examples to start relating and I will also be building prior knowledge.
No for the apologies.  I got my dates mixed up the my ebook "Teaching math using iPads" is offered today and tomorrow for free.  Please enjoy

rewriting my plan of attack.

Last night I got to thinking that many of my students go through the motions of doing the problems without developing a deeper understanding of the math itself.  This means I have not spent enough time in my teaching helping them develop the understanding so I need to focus on making assignments so they require higher level of thinking.  I know too often I resort to the simple calculations. 
I've decided when we do linear equations, I am going to have them find real life examples that use slope along with providing an explanation of what slope tells us.  I think an infographic or similar activity would be good for this.  It is time to revisit what I need taught and how it will be done.  Up to know I've used previous plans with technology inserted as best I could but now I am going to rethink my plans and ideas to see if I can improve .
I need to consult Blooms digital taxonomy to see if I can utilize higher levels of thinking so maybe they will do better. 
Tomorrow and Thursday my ebook on "Teaching Math using an iPad will be available on Amazon for free.  It is a short ebook talking about certain types of apps and specific suggestions for using them in the math class room.  I admit this is geared for older students but you might find some things applicable in the elementary rooms.

Stats and sports

Today, I had a warm-up question where I asked the students to come up with three stats used in sports and how are they calculated.  The students promptly replied average, mode, and range.  It showed me that they were missing a basic concept in how they have a disconnect between the terms of mode, range, median, and mean.  Since we won't be doing much next week, I am going to find a website with either activities or with stats to have the students look up stats for either basketball, NYO (native youth olympics), volleyball or wrestling. These are the major sports played in our school.  If anyone has suggestions on websites for doing this I"d love to hear about it.
Maybe I can have them find certain stats, how the stats are calculated and have them write up a compare and contrast between at least two players so they can practice analyzing and writing.  My students are not good at synthesizing information and this could be turned into a good activity to help with that.

Prime numbers

I keep hearing that we need to relate math topics to real life so students can see where the concept is used.  I had my 9th grade algebra I students go to Safari and research the answer to this question.  "How is prime factorization used in real life.  they found these answers.
1. Cryptography - developing and breaking codes
2. Internet security
3. Credit cards
4. Random number generators
5. breaking thing into parts
6. Magicians use them
I have a small class. Two of the students gave up on looking and one always takes her time.
This exercise gave them an opportunity to do research on a topic and find out more about real life.  I think I am going to integrate more of this next year along with having them write more.  My students score low on the writing and need to see you use it in other subjects.
I am hoping to do a bit of mind mapping on prime numbers on Monday.  It will help them develop some thinking skills they are low on right now.