At first I thought this problem might be a little trivial. But this 3Acts from Dan Meyer is actually nicely done and works well with both addition of fractions or division of fractions as well as proportional reasoning. Get the full task at the link below
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8 http://www.101qs.com/3043-nanas-lemon-water
This 3Act from When Math Happens is a nice problem that brings expectations from multiple strands in. It includes volume of cylinders and then potentially proportional reasoning and data management (depending on how far you want to take it). Plus it might get you all fired up since someone will have to drink all of those energy drinks. Since I am writing this for Ontario curriculum, keep in mind that the measurements are in inches and ounces so you may want to redo this in metric (or not). Get the full task at the link below
In general, I like the idea of problem based learning but sometimes getting good problems is an issue. A good stepping stone to those types questions are what Jo Boaler calls "low floor, high ceiling" questions. That is, easy for students to start but can become more complex and deep as well. She has started to compile a list of these that you can try out on her youcubed.org site. In the coming weeks I will try to highlight some of these individually but for now take a look for yourself.
Curriculum Tags: All http://youcubed.org/teachers/category/low-floor-high-ceiling/
This is a neat problem that you could have grade 7 or 8 students work on that fits really nicely into the geometry strand. The premiss is you have 5 points then there is always a way to create a convex quadrilateral and then extends from there.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPk3SZiFEvQ
If you have students who are Dr. Who fans then maybe you can use some of this data to deal with data management.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLH6GprKhsc
If you are a fan of Archie (yes, the Archie of Archie comics) then you may be sad that (spoiler alert) he will be taking a bullet and dying in the latest issue (it's been a while since I looked an Archie Comic and it looks like things have been getting a bit darker). None the less, according to 538, Archie has been dying for years and here is the data to prove it.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/archie-death-comic-sales/
It's the summer so links seem to be few and far between but I came across this one to bring it in. How about making this drink that gets progressively sweeter as you drink it according to the Fibonacci sequence? Get the recipe and instructions here.
Curriculum Tags: All http://blog.andreahawksley.com/fibonacci-lemonade/
Though not from the Tap Into Teen Minds blog directly, Kyle categorized this one and turned it into a formal Three Act Task. This task uses this awesome clip dealing with some of the more popular hotdog eating champions. Yes, that is what I said, hot dog eating. And it includes the man who changed the face of hot dog eating, Takeru Kobayashi (you may have heard of him if you are a regular Freakonomics Radio listener). So this Three Acts Tasks deals with a commercial featuring some hotdog eating (see below) and can be related directly to linear relations and patterning. Check out the the original post at the link below and Kyle's 3 Act treatment at the link above.
I love this new video from George Hart. I had the pleasure of meeting George at OAME this year. He presented three speakers ahead of me when we did our Ignite sessions. In this new video he presents seven slide together constructions made from various polygon shapes. I didn't see a link anywhere for the templates so I made my own from screenshots that you can download here.
Curriculum Tags: All https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq0La4rEarc
I really like this new Jo Boaler video where she tries to give justification on why common core is necessary. The thing I like about it the most is the emphasis on rich open tasks and why those are important for kids to do. Even more so I love the qualification of the different ways the given quadratic growing pattern can physically grow. I think the volcano is my favourite analogy.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MPM2D, MFM2P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOOW0hQgVPQ
If you are doing any work with open questions (see Marian Small for what that is) then this is a nice resource that could give you some insight on how to create them.
Curriculum Tags: All http://nrich.maths.org/2471
In a recent MaCleans magazine on Canada they had a nice article with a lot of good graphs that could be easily used in any data management class. Check it out
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MBF3C, MDM4U, MAP4C http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/putting-canada-on-the-map/
This came across my Facebook feed this week. Jokes are fun but when you can connect them to curriculum then that's even better. For example this one "An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first orders a beer, the second orders half a beer, the third orders a quarter of a beer, and so on. … After the seventh order, the bartender pours two beers and says, “You fellas ought to know your limits.”" could be used for Calculus and there is a nice one that could be used when talking about loans in grade 11
Curriculum Tags: MCR3U, MBF3C, MCF3M, MCV4U http://www.tickld.com/x/20-intelligent-jokes-most-people-wont-get-straight-away-16-is-gold
Imagine that a school built especially for kids who love math
Curriculum Tags: All
I add this here not because I agree with it but because I do like to show both sides of the story. I do think that drill is needed but the issue here is that you need both a balance of drill and problem solving. But what isn't mentioned is that if you are testing kids on things that you practice by drilling then of course they will do better than kids who were taught more holistically. So I am not sure how valid the study is (despite how much care went into the production of the study)
Curriculum Tags: All http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/jun/27/want-kids-do-better-math-put-away-group-games-get-/
I think this would be a great challenge. Use your knowledge of quadratic relations to prove this video can't be true. Thanks to Geoffrey Bezaire for this one
Curriculum Tags: MPM2D, MFM2P, MCR3U, MCF3M, MBF3C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyekCd0g8B8
Another one that came through my Facebook feed. I like this because you could use it in any grade that talks about patterning but especially in grade 10 where you first discover quadratic relations. This is such a simple pattern when you figure it out algebraically and having kids do it manually could be a good catalyst when talking about quadratic relations.
Curriculum Tags: Gr7, Gr8, MFM2P, MPM2D
I am a sucker for any resources on the nature of randomness. We really have a hard time understanding what random really is. In this interview from Science Friday, they talk to William Poundstone, author of “Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody”. In it he talks about how knowing how random truly works can be an advantage that you can exploit. This is a good topic of conversation for any students talking about probability. Listen to the full interview below.
