Author: natbanting

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graphing investigation pattern

Using Real-Time Graphs

I have a class of grade nine students this semester that are part of a stretch program. This essentially means that they get 160 hours to complete a 120 hour course. The class is designed to accommodate the transition from elementary school (Grades 1-8) into high school (Grades 9-12) for those students who feel uncomfortable with their math ability.

It also affords me a few extra days here and there to stress certain topics. One of my foci this semester has been pattern modelling. Essentially, we work with various patterns and develop generic rules to describe their behaviour. Linear relations will be our finish line, but I am making sure to provide ample concreteness before abstracting into notations.

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PBL projects surface area volume

Soft Drink Project Part 5: The Show

This is the finale of a series of blog posts detailing a student posed project. To get the full picture, begin reading at part one:

Soft Drink Project Part 1: The Framework
As the project drew to a close, students began to place a valuation on their work. Very seldom did the topic of grades come up during the process, but even students know they are playing a game. They asked me how I would be grading, and I told them we would be using our self/peer/teacher model as always.
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PBL projects surface area volume

Soft Drink Project Part 4: The Math

This is the fourth in a series of posts detailing a student-posed math project. To get the full picture, please read the previous posts beginning with:

Soft Drink Project Part 1: The Framework
This post is designed to dampen the fear of math teachers. I know, because I was very afraid that the project had missed the mark until students moved into this phase. For some reason, teachers feel like they have more ability to complete a list of outcomes if they dictate the exact way, pace, and form that the learning will take. My division states they want to create life-long learners; in this model, the only lifelong learners are teachers because they must continue to do all the learning for their students day after day.
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investigation PBL projects surface area volume

Soft Drink Project Part 3: The Design

This post is the third in a series of posts detailing the happenings of a math project. To better understand the whole story, please start reading at the beginning:

Soft Drink Project Part 1: The Framework
The next few classes after the brainstorming class were a blur. Students would come into class, grab their previous work, and get down to business. It was the best I could do to have supplies waiting for them. I learned quickly that students can become pretty demanding when it came to their learning.
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investigation PBL projects surface area volume

Soft Drink Project Part 2: The Brainstorm

This post will make a lot more sense if you read the framework for the project in “Soft Drink Project Part 1: The Framework“.

I left the classroom energized; I could not remember a time that I was more pleased with a lesson that I had taught. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it teaching. I was observing. The process of brainstorming began organically. I had my doubts that it would continue the following Monday. Typically, students can’t even remember where they sit after a weekend–let alone what task they ended on.

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PBL projects surface area volume

Soft Drink Project Part 1: The Framework

This post is the first in a series describing a set of classes in my Grade 11 Workplace and Apprenticeship class. I have designed the course around the ideals of Project-Based Learning (PBL); students encounter a series of tasks, problems, and prompts that necessitate three crucial qualities: Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and  Communication. Each unit leaves ample room for student extensions and mathematical forays into more elaborate pursuits. This unit was no different. Students studied the topics of Surface Area and Volume through a series of tasks, problems, and prompts–one of which ballooned into the subject of this blog series.

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investigation PBL surface area tasks

Unexpected Lesson Extension

It is very hard to develop an active atmosphere in a math classroom–especially at the high school level. I believe there are two main reasons for this: 1) Students have been slowly trained throughout their schooling that a “good” math student is one that listens, absorbs, and repeats. 2) The content often reaches beyond what most teachers deem to be “constructable”. Rather than fight with these two restraints, I began my implementation of Problem Based Learning in a class with manageable curriculum content filled with students who never learned to sit still in the first place.

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cylinder sphere tasks volume

Finding a Radius

I designed a class around the pedagogy of Project Based Learning this semester. As the school year passes by at mach speed, I have adapted certain activities and projects to fit my students’ needs. The result is a class based around providing tools, and tackling interesting tasks with them. Each set of problems (or unit) is capped with a large project.

We are in the midst of a surface area and volume unit. We have tackled the major solids and prisms. Netting, superimposing grids, converting units, analyzing packaging etc. Throughout the entire class, I have been highlighting the various “employable skills” that they are honing with their work. Estimation, problem solving, critical thinking, diagnostics, peer work, spatial reasoning and the like.

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logic tasks

Questionless Scavenger Hunt

My involvement with a provincial math executive presented me with an interesting task recently. Like most tasks, I turned to get some input from the strong contingent of math teacher tweeps.

I needed to develop an activity for 100-115 students in grades Seven to Eight. All I was told is that it should be about an hour and a half, and be active in nature. The students are taking part in a math contest in the morning, and it would be great to get the blood pumping. I turned these demands to twitter, and came up with some excellent options:

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reflection

Monty in Math Ed

Before you continue reading, This is not a post about the Monty Hall problem. Not because I don’t love the problem, it just isn’t. That ship has sailed 

This post was born from a conversation I had with a teaching friend after a games night. Along the way, we were reminiscing some past experiences and he mentioned the famous clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Sir Bedevere handles a crowd’s plea to burn a woman suspected of witchcraft. When I got home that evening, I searched the clip and watched it for the first time in years. My lens has obviously changed, because I found myself not interested solely in the logic and hilarity of the piece, but on Sir Bedevere’s teaching methods. As you refresh your memory below, I want you to do so with your “educator lens”. Does Sir Bedevere run an effective lesson?
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