Activities for Workplace Math

College math classes will bring you a variety of learners. Among them will be the students who are taking their last math class ever and they really have not patience for math. This brings your challenge as a teacher to keep these students as engaged as possible and provide as much evidence for your students on how learning math will benefit them in the future. The activities presented last class did an excellent job in achieving this. The first activity presented was a finance lesson geared toward the grade 11 MBF 3C class. This activity takes place the day after teaching the class how to calculate interest. In this activity, student groups are provided with the terms and information on different credit cards. The teacher then provides a scenario to the entire class where something is purchased and based on their information each group needs to calculate their interest and the benefits of using this credit card plan. The class then compares the results and discusses their thought on the benefits and disadvantages of credit card plans. Using actual credit card and debit plans is definitely a benefit for students as this develops life skills for everyday budgeting and banking.

The second activity was directed towards grade 12 MAP 4C class, it also developed student knowledge directly applicable to useful life skills. This activity allows students to design a house plan and make decisions based on a budget. The teacher provided a floor plan with dimensions of each room and students could choose from an array of tiles, hardwoods, carpeting, and paint colours to decorate their home. A worksheet is also provided for students to calculate the total cost of each room after they make their decisions. In class we were to choose three rooms and calculate the total cost however it was mentioned that this would make an excellent culminating assignment with a few adjustments. Some of the changes that could be made are 1)have students complete the entire floor plan 2) re-calculate some rooms using different materials and compare prices 3) Have students discuss the accuracy of their estimates i.e. some of the missing variables in the activity such as hidden costs/savings.

 

Math Gamification for Senior Classes

In my last math class, my fellow teacher candidates presented lesson activities that were excellent examples of incorporating gaming aspects into the classroom. In senior classes it can be a challenge to make math fun for students but I can tell you that these two activities had an entire class of adult learners completely excited about playing games.

The first activity presented by my colleague was "Deal or No Deal" for the Data Management course. In this activity student groups will be re-creating the Deal or No Deal game show and like the premise of the show they will calculate their probability of receiving an enticing offer from the banker. There was a lot of prep work done by the teacher. In each group is provided with a bristol board of cases, offer cards and 3 handouts for calculations, reflection questions and to outline the rules. After students chose the specified number of cases they were given an offer from the banker and the they to calculate probabilities of the having a case with a value greater than and less than the offer. Based on these probabilities students would either make a Deal or No Deal.  Overall I thought this was a very fun and useful way of practicing basic probability. For future use I would try to experiment with ways I can transfer some of the game components to an online version. One way I can already see working is playing this as a class and having the case board on one PowerPoint.

The next fun activity was a classic game of "Dominoes" and the activity was geared towards a Grade 12 Advanced Functions class so the faces on the Dominoes were Logarithms. Personally I had never played Dominoes before but it is very easy and for math people very addictive to make a match. This was an excellent way for students to practice their log laws. My colleague explained that in her class she actually used this as a warm up activity after just teaching the log laws but it can also be used later for review. Also, each time they play students can assess how they are progressing in their knowledge of log laws by tracking how much time it takes them to convert the logs to a single value. This activity can be adapted to almost every math course, instead of logs you can have equations in different forms, trig equations and angles, and solving for x.    

Grade 11 Functions

Grade 11 Functions is always a tough course for students whether students go from 10 academic to 11 University or 10 academic to 11 U/C the grade 11 curriculum does have a jump in the learning. Students in grade 11 will learn new/larger concepts and are required to practice through a range of application questions. One of the main new concepts in the grade 11 curriculum is exponential functions. This week one of my colleagues presented an activity to be used as an introductory lesson to exponential functions for a university level class. In this activity there were three stations created where each presented a problem that could be modeled by an exponential growth function. Being an introductory lesson the students are unaware of exponential growth applications or how exponential functions are represented. Thus students use existing mathematical knowledge and strategies to solve for the questions provided at each station. I really enjoyed the specific application questions my colleague had created for the students which were all very engaging and related to the interests of high school students. Examples included zombie apocalypse rate, ice bucket challenge and number of folds on a paper. For the first two stations, in order to solve for the number of people (infected or involed in the challenge) after x many days, there were counting chips provided. This helped the students visualize that there was a growth occurring however it was not linear or quadratic like they had already seen. The other station provided physical sheets of paper  for the students to fold and record the squares created after each fold. Overall this activity was very useful as an introduction as it forced students to not only apply previous knowledge but also use critical thinking to lead them to exponential functions. Although this was created for university level class I see it also being useful in a university/college level class.

   

Grade 9 Applied Lessons

CBR Motion Detector, Scientific Calculator,
Graph Worksheet

        The old saying goes.."You learn something new everyday" well today I learned something new in regards to technology used for math lessons. My colleague taught a lesson created for Grade 9 Applied class and she used a CBR. If you are like me you are thinking what the heck is that! Well it is a motion detector that connects to a scientific calculator which will display your motion in a graph. This was an introductory lesson to Rates of Change and I think it was a perfect activity to form a students understanding exactly what rate of change means. The package provided to each student clearly explained the steps for setting up the CBR and Calculator. Then the students were provided with 6 separate graphs and had to experiment with their motion patterns read by the CBR in order to re-create the graphs. This helped the students understand the difference between direction and speed. The next worksheet solidified their understanding of the same factors of a graph however they had to work in the reverse order. Thistime the motion of each graph was provided in words and students had to draw the graph based on the description. Now that the students comprehend the meaning of the graph, the teacher incorporated the rate of change formula and had the students calculate rise/run from the graph. I really enjoyed this activity and found the teaching order of the concept to be very effective. The CBR was an excellent tool to use and since this is actually an old piece of technology as is the scientific calculator, we had discussed whether they would create a connector that goes from the CBR to an iPad and the students can use the app for TI-83 or if eventually they create an app that records the motion and displays the graph.

         The other lesson of the night I wanted to share was a fun activity helping students solve for a variable x in an equation. To do this simple activity in your class all you need is mini whiteboards and whiteboard markers or if  you don't have mini whiteboards my colleague made a creative substitution by using clear document sleeves. After placing your students in groups of 4, you provide the entire class with an equation to solve and within each group a student will begin solving by writing down the first step. After the first step is done the student will pass on the whiteboard to the next student in the group who will complete the next step. This will continue until the group has isolated for the variable. what is excellent about this activity is that students have the opportunity to learn from their peers. If a mistake is made in one of the steps the next person will hopefully catch it and help the previous person fix it. This activity can be one of those fun math days especially when you make it a competition and the first group to correctly finish the equation will get a prize. I would definitely do this in my class because it achieves the same goal as providing the students with worksheets on worksheets of equations however it adds that element of excitement.

Grade 9& 10 Academic Lessons

Tonight was the night for geometry! Two of the three grade 9 teachers chose to teach a lesson on the sum of interior angles. Both teachers had very similar lessons but different approaches. My first colleague provided a worksheet with multiple figures and we were to to investigate how to find the sum of the interior angles for each figure. This lesson took a very openended approach, I liked how the students were given time to develop their own thoughts and strategize how they can solve the problem. The students had the support of their peers and constant support form the teacher circulating the classroom. In the end, students presented their findings to the class and we found that the class had come up with multiple strategies. I thought having the students explain to the class what they did to be very useful. Maybe the method we came up with in our group is different from another group and by learning the other groups method I better understood the concept. A worksheet was also provided during the lesson which was an excellent consolidation tool however it could have been referenced more frequently by the teacher. I feel I focused more on the problem and did not bother to summarize my findings during investigation. My other colleague's lesson was more of a teacher driven approach. He began by having us draw a triangle on a paper and draw semi-circles in each corner indicating the angles. We were then instructed to cut out our triangle and cut off the angled corners. From the corners we were asked what we notice about the corners put together and it was that they create 180 degree angle thus solidifying the concept that each triangle has a sum of 180 degrees. From here we worked on a sheet the same as the other lesson splitting up polygons into triangles and calculating the sums. Both lessons lead to the creation of the formula --->SUM =180(n-2) however one lesson was a more direct path towards this formula while the other was more of a discovery process. I think both lessons were excellent, I would use them both and when/where I use them would depend on the type of learners I have in my classroom.

Coordinate Grid and Description Cards

Another lesson activity I thought was absolutely incredible was "Speed Dating and Equation Making" . The learning goal was for students to determine the equation of a line when given specific characteristics such as the slope and y-intercept. The activity required the class to be grouped in pairs of two and the desks were set up in a horseshoe shape so the students could rotate partners like speed dating. In each starting pair, one student was given a yellow card with information on the slope and their partner was given a purple card with information about the intercept. The objective of the activity was to put together their information, create the equation of a line and draw the line on the provided coordinate grid. Printed on the grid were hearts on specific points, if the equation they created passed through a point with a heart this would be a match. The class will rotate to all partners and in the end the winner is the person with the most matches. I found this to be very fun activity and an easy way to practice forming and drawing equation of lines. I can also see how this could be adapted to the grade 10 curriculum by having the students match quadratic equations and the hearts could possibly be placed at the vertex.

Math Lessons for Intermediate Classes

In this week's class I was reliving my days as a student in grade 7 and grade 8 math classes. My fellow teacher candidates presented some interesting lesson ideas they created from the grade 7/8 math curriculum and the following are a few ideas that really stood out to me.

MTSOfan. (April 28th 2008)."Monopoly Justice"(Online Image).
Retrieved from:[https://goo.gl/images/OVPtRX] 

One of my colleagues presented a lesson on finances and money management which is a crucial concept for real life application. For years Monopoly has been a best selling board game and not just for its addictive nature but also because it is an important educational tool. My fellow teacher candidate created a lesson which was a play on Monopoly and the learning goal for the class was to understand daily expenses and how to properly manage your budget. The teacher had placed all the students in groups of 4-5 and had assigned a profession to each group or now known as each family. With their profession, the families received a monthly income statement and were instructed to collect their money from the bank which was paper monopoly money. The teacher then advised each family that they were to pay various bills (internet, phone, rent, grocery etc.) and one bill at a time the teacher would provide the percentage that each bill would take from their paycheck and the students were to calculate the exact dollar amount. What I truly enjoyed about this activity was that at all times the students were engaged. One student from each group was in charge of distributing money, collecting money, recording transactions and/or calculations. The students were even able to have fun playing the role of their professions such as the internet company collecting money or the banker handing it out. This activity clearly made the connection between earning and spending and although we were adults playing we even forgot about certain required expenses. Thus this would be a great reality check for students and the enforce the importance of budgeting which is a crucial life skill.

The second lesson that had me intrigued had us practicing with coordinate grids and transformations of figures. The teacher created a story called "Steve the Stick Figure" and the goal at the end of the activity was to explain Steve's story based on his movements. For this activity the class was divided in 8 groups. Each group was sent to a station and at each station we were given coordinates of two points; one representing Steve's head the other his body. After plotting the coordinates and drawing the stick figure on the provided coordinate grid we were to read the transformation instructions specific to that station. For example one station said "Steve walked three blocks right and four blocks north" we then had to translate our points three units right and four units up to find the new coordinates. We then searched for the next station with starting points that matched our coordinates after transformations. This process continued through until all 8 stations were visited and the path was completed. I enjoyed this activity especially the fact that the class was moving and it resembled that of a scavenger hunt for the correct coordinates. I also like the worksheets created for the assignment; one to draw out our figures on coordinate grids, one to organize our steps and describe the transformations that happened at each station, and to consolidate the lesson with a few critical thinking questions where we had to draw conclusions from the movements recorded. Overall I found this to be an excellent lesson and although it was noted to use this near the beginning of a unit I would suggest to use this activity near the end perhaps before a test as it encompasses a lot of different concepts.