Thursday, May 21, 2015
Mystery Grid Puzzle
As part of my year-end activities, I made this Mystery Grid Puzzle. I figured it was a way for my students to be careful, be observant, and be artsy all at once. I found a pixelated picture I liked, and then slapped a grid over it. Here is a copy if this sound intriguing.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Advertising Idea
My CS1 class is finishing up their original Greenfoot games, so I had them make advertising flyers to "sell their game". They had to have screenshots, descriptions, customer reviews, and developer bios.
I love how creative the students are. I'm thinking I want something like this to be my first day activity next year for the math classes. Maybe something to the effect of "selling math" or "math as a movie" (pick your genre) and have various necessary spiels they have to include. ... Something to think about over the summer. (Who's the GREAT photographer?)
I love how creative the students are. I'm thinking I want something like this to be my first day activity next year for the math classes. Maybe something to the effect of "selling math" or "math as a movie" (pick your genre) and have various necessary spiels they have to include. ... Something to think about over the summer. (Who's the GREAT photographer?)
Thursday, May 07, 2015
End of the Year Calculus Project
Whew! That's done. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo by having an AP Calculus AB exam. Aye yai yai yai! After the exam it's a mix of attendance and other issues for students, and every year I have done slightly different things. This year, I wanted to revisit "projects". I had an awful time the last time I did this. Granted, I let the kids have free reign with their time, and shockingly, some chose to waste it (who would have thought), and this resulted in the most memorable string of e-mails from a parent who claimed it was all my fault a student got a bad grade and the kid would now not get into his choice school and his life was ruined and what kind of monster was I? So you can maybe see why I hesitate to do a project.
Flash forward to this year. I wanted to do a project (because I never learn), but I wanted a Volumes of Revolution project. My specs:
* Must be cheap.
* Must be done only in class with no homework.
* Must involve creativity.
* Must involve calculus.
* Must be fast.
* Must be original.
* Must pull some other math topics from bygone years.
* Must use technology.
And voila! Here are the benefits (I hope) of this project:
* Involves scratch paper and tape/scissors and MAYBE pretty paper.
* I believe it can be done in 2 or 3 block schedule classes.
* Students create their own functions.
* They have to calculate the volume of revolution.
* They have to know how to calculate the radius if given the circumference.
* Regression website! Desmos!
So I give you THIS. Let the fun begin.
Flash forward to this year. I wanted to do a project (because I never learn), but I wanted a Volumes of Revolution project. My specs:
* Must be cheap.
* Must be done only in class with no homework.
* Must involve creativity.
* Must involve calculus.
* Must be fast.
* Must be original.
* Must pull some other math topics from bygone years.
* Must use technology.
And voila! Here are the benefits (I hope) of this project:
* Involves scratch paper and tape/scissors and MAYBE pretty paper.
* I believe it can be done in 2 or 3 block schedule classes.
* Students create their own functions.
* They have to calculate the volume of revolution.
* They have to know how to calculate the radius if given the circumference.
* Regression website! Desmos!
So I give you THIS. Let the fun begin.
