Warm-up

 A python has a reproductive life of between 27 months and 30 years and is able to lay one clutch each year.  Each clutch has between 1 and 11 eggs.  What is the range of eggs laid from minimum to maximum for 27 months to 30 years.

Warm-up

 

If a python has a lifespan of 12 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity, what percent increase is there in the lifespan between living in the wild and in captivity?

Looking For Math Activities For Veterans Day.

 

First off, I would like to thank all the veterans who put their lives at risk to protect our country.  I thank my father who fought in two different wars so others wouldn't have to go.  He has passed but I still remember.  Now on to the topic of math activities for Veterans Day.  I found a few that were geared for older students but most of the ones I found are for lower elementary and most of those were standard worksheets with a few pics of Veterans Day thrown in.

I did find a couple of things for older students but it was only because I knew where to look.  I wanted free resources because most teachers have a limited budget.  One can always find activities that cost but sometimes it is harder if you want it for free.  

One site that had a few things was my reliable Yummy Math. They have a lovely one from 2019 which has students reading and interpreting data.  Students are asked to read two maps, one has the veteran populations by states and the other has the percentage of veterans among the adult population per state.  So it gives the number of veterans and the percentage they make of the population.  Rather than giving specific numbers, the states are color coded based on the populations and the colors are ranges.  At the end, there are three questions designed to have students read and interpret the information.  This is an area that most students do not get enough practice.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has a blog entry with 5 suggestions of activities for the classroom for Memorial Day but they can be adjusted for Veterans Day..  Although many of the activities suggested are for upper elementary, most can be adjusted slightly for middle school or high school.  All of the activities are more project based and they require students to think about things One activity has students design a parade float while determining how much they need of wood, paper, etc to create the whole float and then calculate the cost of building the float.

Another activity has students creating a museum where they have to think about the location, what they want in the museum and they even have to consider the budget the have to work with.  They then have to determine the cost of each ticket and the number of tickets needed to be sold to cover the budget.  There is also a project where students calculate everything for a cookout.  They have to decide the number of people, the number of buns, dogs, hamburgers, etc needed and the cost.  There are two more, one on fireworks and one on symbols.  Check it out and notice it won't take much to adjust it to Veterans Day.

These are the two sites I found with decent activities for middle school and high school.  Check the sites out and let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Online Math Games And Activities Part 4

Today is the final part of games and activities.  This is the last part of the list of possible games and activities that are digitally based and can be used in the classroom to enhance or scaffold learning.  One reason I've done such an in-depth list is that so many students play games on their digital devices and if we can provide games for the classroom, they are more likely to play and learn. 

Sumdog is a site with games for grades K to 8.  There is a free account for teachers which allows them access to 6 games they can have students use.  According to their site, the free account includes access to a diagnostic tool, has the ability to adapt to each child,   Unfortunately, the 6 games are pre chosen so teachers have no say in the game selected. The games range from ones focused for younger students to older ones.  You can set up an account, check out the free games to see if they are something you can use in your classroom. 

Now for some of the more familiar games and sites you might already know about.  If your school has a Minecraft subscription already, the site includes lesson plans the teacher can use with it. To use Minecraft in schools does require a subscription but if your school has Office 365, you may already have access to it.  The lesson plans has lessons on using arrays to multiply, introduction to the coordinate plane or area and volume.  It is possible to do either a keyword search or a general search by age and topic.  The nice thing is that it is possible to assign a unit via google classroom.  These lessons go with the Minecraft world so if you have access, check them out to see if anything can be used in your classes.

Then there is Quizlet which is a site filled with digital flash cards. They have higher levels of mathematics from Arithmetic to Stats and Calculus. In addition to being used as flash cards, they can also be studied, used as a test, or used in a matching game.  If you have a google account, you can log into this site and try it out.  Each deck has a preview function so you can tell if it covers what you want them to learn.  They also show you how to use the cards in a game called checkpoint.  Furthermore, there is lots of information on how to use the cards, get the classes set up, etc.  When you use the learn feature, you can choose quick study or memorize the material.  I went with the one for long term memory and each question was a multiple choice.  I purposely made a mistake and it identified the correct answer. 

The test set has it set up for true or false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, and matching so the questions are not all the same.  At the end, it gives feedback in that it lets you know how many questions were correct and how many incorrect and provide answers for all the questions.  I do have a bit of a quibble with a few questions such as y = ln(x) they classified as a logarithmic function and many people look at it as a natural log function and treat it a bit differently.  It also marked me off when I identified a graph as Quadratic instead of "Graph of a Quadratic".  I answered it the same way many of my students would.  As far as I can tell you can sign up for a free basic account but I'm still not sure what all it includes as the information is not easily available.  I do know that they do want teachers to upgrade to a plus account which does cost. Check it out to see if it is something you'd like to use regularly.

The last site for this time is ABCya which is grades K to 6+ and does have a free option that allows a person access to all the games on a laptop but only 6 games each week on digital devices and only allows one device for this account.  I was able to use the games without signing in so I could try a few to see if they matched the needs of my students.  There was the equivalent proportions where you type in the missing number.  The faster you type in the correct answer, the faster you go.  I had to use two different methods to find answers which made it better in my opinion. Another game, Zero Sum, has students matching positive and negative numbers to form zero but it is groups of numbers so you have to match the shapes.  In addition, as you progress, you might have to use two or three shapes to get some of the numbers down to zero.  Although this is geared for upper elementary, it would provide good practice for students who are weak in fractions, ratios, proportions, etc.

So on Friday, I am off to a new topic.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Math Activities And Games Part 3

Here we are on day 3 with games, activities, and other interactive things you can use in your classroom.  I do double check these to make sure they haven't been sold to someone else or all the sudden cost a ton of money because things change all the time.  Years ago, I used a website that allowed me to take the steps needed to solve an equation, mix up the steps, and have the students rearrange them into the correct order. Sort of the mathematical version of sentence strips.  

Today we are starting with the site Purpose Games. This site allows the teacher to set up groups (one class per group) and arrange tournaments (or assignments)  for students to participate in. Tournaments can be used monthly, weekly, or daily as needed. In addition, it allows for google sign-ins so if your school uses google e-mail, all your students will be able to use it. The site has some great instructions for teachers to set groups and tournaments up and use in the classroom. This site is completely free to use.

I checked out some of the games that have been created by other teachers.  When I put math in the search bar, games covering topics such as 3-D geometric shapes, basic trig identities, radians, unit circle, polar coordinates, percentages, etc came up.  I tried a more specific topic to see if that gave decent results. When I typed in coordinate plane, I ended up with multiple games popping up and one even included vocabulary. I tried the word solve and got a lovely variety of games covering solving multistep equations, solving by substitution, solving for sin(x) and cos(x)

I chose a short game on solving inequalities.  It had 5 questions and all the problems when solved were greater than.  There were no negative numbers involved but at the end, but at the end, a scoreboard arrives at the end letting the player know how well they did.  The only thing is that if a question is missed, there is no feedback to tell you which questions you missed or why. 

I took a screen shot so you can see.  It gives some cool stats and if the student didn't do well and wants to up their score, they can play it again.  Students automatically earn badges as they play games so that is cool and there is a leaderboard but I'm not sure if the leaderboard can be customized for your class. It does give your ranking overall every time you play.  I would also check out the games to make sure they aren't too long and cover the material you want.  If not, they have the ability to let you create games yourself.

Give the site a look to see if it is something you can use.  Next we have Room Recess which is actually geared for K to 6 but several games available and can be used on a computer or touchscreen.  What sets this apart from other sites is that each game comes with a video, a worksheet, the game, and a quiz.  I've included this site so if you have students who have difficulty working with fractions, or multiplying, you can assign students games from here to help them strengthen their foundation.  I know there are some middle school teachers who read this and may want to use it in their classrooms as scaffolding. One nice feature is that you can click on the grade and click on math to find the games that work for say grades 4 to 6.  

Another site with games is Shepard Software.  This site has lots of games that do not require students to sign in. Once you have the webpage up, you click on math and they list a variety of topics from early math, all the way up to Algebra.  Along the top, they also tell you they have been redoing the games so they work on digital devices.  I decided to check out Geometry and several games popped up that were geometry based. The triangles and angles one looked interesting so I clicked on it. They have 5 different levels beginning with the basic three angles themselves.  The next four levels dealt with basic triangles of right, acute, and obtuse with a variation including rotation and then the special triangles like equilateral and a variation with rotation. The games tells you how many questions and gives a choice of relaxed mode or timed so students who are slower can still play it without pressure.  The game I chose had moving triangles and I was told to find an acute, so I took the round circle, clicked on the acute angle triangle and it moved to the next type of triangle.  At the end, you got a report of hits and misses and percent overall.  It also listed the choice of redoing the game.  This is worth checking out.  It may not have a lot of games but the games I tried weren't bad and offers students some very specific topics.  Check it out.

I'll be back Wednesday with the last installment of this topic.  I hope these are helping by providing some sites you didn't know about.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warmup

 If a seahorse gives birth to 4000 offspring and only 0.5 percent survive to adulthood, how many of the 4000 will survive to adulthood.

Warmup

 A giant sea dragon can grow to be 45 centimeters in length.  What is that in inches?