Death and Statistics

I asked for the statistics class this year.  I wasn't sure I would get it, but I figured what the heck and also thought that it would be fun.

So far so good...

I was looking at a news site this evening and came across a neat salon.com article in which there is a widget which allows you to choose a year (there are about a dozen given) and it will predict how you would have died had you lived in that year. Death in History

After looking through and seeing what would come up for each of the years, I got to thinking that this would be a great lesson to tie in cross curriculurally with the Social Studies department.  (of course, doing so would require holding out on using this idea until an appropriate point in the other class arose)

It seems to me that the choices are most likely generated using a weighted system related in some way to the actual death rates for each of the given years.  What I'd like to do is have each of my statistics students use the widget 10-20 times for a particular year, pool their data (they work in groups) and then using that data see if they could predict what the actual rates were relating to reasons for mortality for each year.

I don't know if I'll wait for a History teacher for the tie in, and I can already see the students just wanting to google for the causes of death for the given year, but perhaps if they try to end run around me like that I can challenge them to figure out how the widget is accomplishing what it is doing.

Regardless I anticipate some interesting discussion surrounding the topic.

School Has started....

I began classes on Tuesday, which annoyingly was a half-day.  While I understand that this allows the students to ease their way back into classes, it also barely gives time for attendance, scheduling issues and then something to set the tone.

I said I was going to do math on day 1, and I'm happy yo say that on day 1 I did math!  I did the 4-square activity that I had stated I would do.  In most of the classes, it worked well given the time constraint and kids were very much still talking about it the next day.

Wednesday was even less productive in 2 of my classes because of class meetings (in my 2nd and 4th hours I had less than 20% of the students actually in class).

Today I handed out notebooks and introduced the idea of an interactive notebook.  we taped a rules page on the back of the front cover and for those students who had already gotten their syllabii signed, that went there too.  We made the first page our "unit table of contents" and made 2 foldables for the 1st topic.

 Tomorrow I am planning on doing the Marshmallow Challenge. I figure it should be a good team building activity as I know our students generally find working in groups to be a challenge (some just coast, while others take over).

Applying my goal to an annoying question *Opening week activity*

I've got a number of goals for this next school year.  There's Interactive Student Notebooks (which administration has given the ok). Standards Based Grading (which the admin is less than fully supportive of) and pre-teaching.

I will devote a post at sometime to the process of pre-teaching I am considering.  This post is about how I want to use that idea to solve a problem which comes up at least 2-3 times a year in each of my classes.

"When will we ever use this?"

I have lots of responses for this question, this post is not about them.

Next week my students will arrive.  They are coming with baggage, many of them cripplingly so with regard to mathematics. They've struggled, OR WORSE YET, they've never had to struggle, to work, to imagine how to solve math questions.

Still, "when will we ever use this?"

Their newness to me is a benefit, believe it or not. Many of these students are, being high school aged, thinking of what they'd like to do as a career for the rest of their lives.  I'm thinking this might be one of my only chances to get an honest answer from them about what they might like to do.  I'll take it.

They're asking the right question, especially given the age they are.  Problem is, they're asking the wrong person.  Look at the pronoun.   "When will WE ever use this?"  This question should not, nah CANNOT be answered to the satisfaction of the student by the teacher.

So, I want to know what each of my students wants to do when they grow up, and then I want to use their answers to have them tell me, and the class when we'll ever use this.

I see the big pitfall already.  I won't need math to be a choreographer (told to me last year by a lovely young lady).  Or, I don't know what I want to be.  Well, each of my students will one day be a member of our society, preferably a productive one.  (That's the part which is up to us)

I'm going to collect this data.  I want to sit on it for at least a month.  I want to know the students better, and I want them to know me better before we discuss this little project.

Then I'll wait for someone to ask that magic question. "When will we ever use this."   I'm glad you asked.

Gotcha!

I want a research paper.  How does HIGH SCHOOL leveled mathematics appear in the job you wish to one day hold?   No high school leveled math involve in your chosen career?  (Very unlikely) then I have a list of math topics which affect many adults, just in being citizens and residents of our modern civilization

Voting, demographics, borrowing money, lending money, taxes, population, accelerating in relation to cars, decelerating in relation to airplanes/boats, lunar cycles, average climate (temperature, rainfall), triangulation, etc...

Can't find an appropriate topic, the pick one at random from my hat.

How is this pre-teaching?  Seems to me any time I get students reflecting and/or predicting (and doing more work than I am) them I'm doing something right.

Dan and Desmos present: Penny Circle!

Big THANK YOU to Dan Meyer and Team Desmos for their latest creation.  If you haven't seen it, here it is: Penny Circle.

Dan and Eli Luberoff shared what they had created, invited math teachers (and others) to play with it and, here's my favorite part, to make suggestions of other ideas which could be developed.

This is incredible, a tipping point on some level.  Up until now most online curriculum has been created, sometimes without teachers being involved in the material, and offered up to teachers looking for resources.  The idea that we might want/need/expect a hand in creating materials for our own classes would have been a nigh impossibility just a few years ago (given the large numbers of teachers and the limited number of curriculum publishers)  The discussion in education has focused for a while now on engaging students, well I want to be engaged too!!

Ok, maybe its because I'm in such a sequences mood, but I have an idea for a game/activity relating to this topic.  Remember the game Galaga?  (if not, play it).  In this game, an armada of invading ships was coming and it was your job to defend the planet.  Imagine if the ships were being released from a number strip and it was your job to predict where the next ship would be released from.  As I imagine it, ships would continue to generate (and you couldn't attack the invaders) until you managed to destroy a spawning ship from the next number in the sequence.  Different modes with progressively harder to predict sequences could be made and points could be scored (what's a space shooter game without points and bragging rights?)

Imagine walking through the lunch room and seeing kids trying over and over to beat their friend's high score, learning and practicing sequences all the while.

Finally something in the lunch room besides the chicken surprise to bring a tear to my eye.

It could happen....

Sequence and Series group lesson

I've got this idea for a sequence lesson.

I see it as a group assignment.  I want to give the students 2 terms of a sequence and have them identify a sequence which could contain those two terms.  I figure that if I given only two terms, that a number of different sequences could be made using those terms.

I've never made a Prezi before, but I did work on one for this lesson. It is still a work in progress. (I am hoping for feedback on the lesson, not the Prezi)  sequence prezi

The groups will all be given the same starting information (in case you didn't look at the Prezi).  I will be giving them:

My thought is that the groups can either look at this as 5 cents and 20 cents, or they can see 1 thing and 4 things.  I want the groups to each come up with a different sequence.  Once each group comes up with their sequence they need to write the first 4 terms and a rule to get those terms on the board.  As each group adds their terms and rules, that particular sequence becomes off limits to the other groups.

Next I want the groups to figure out if their sequence would end up including the term $5.00 or not.

I can see lots of different options for a third term, giving each group a different sequence of numbers and rules.  I want different groups to view the given information differently.  I don't want the final challenge to influence the kind of sequence they choose.

ok, thoughts?

Sorry to Drexel University

I have heard that Drexel University has copy written "I notice......I wonder....."

My problem comes from knowing that my students will see "I notice" as less than Drexel U. is anticipating. My modification will seem insignificant, a matter of semantics but I know that for my students it should make a significant difference.

To me the questions should be:". I SEE......I NOTICE.....I WONDER..."

First off threes seem more complete than two's. (at least to me and Blind Melon they do) 

Next, I know that if I don't separate "see" from "notice" the students won't either.   To see means to observe with the eyes.  To notice implies the brain being involved in the observation.   I want my student's brains involved before the wonder portion.

I don't want my students simply giving me visual observations before posing questions about the situation being offered to them.  I want them thinking, and preferably thinking deeply about their questions.   Our brains need to warm up before asking truly valuable questions.  Getting the brain working from concrete to abstract is a natural and valuable progression.  Without this progression I am afraid that my students will not delve deeply enough into the problems which I am giving them.

How do I see this playing out in the classroom?

Me:  Take a look at this:{1, 4, 9, 16...}  What do you See?

Multiple students:  I see a group of numbers.  I see a set of numbers.  I see 4 numbers.

Me:  What do you notice?

Multiple Students:  positive numbers.  +3, +5, +7.  Squares

Me:  What do you wonder?

and so on.

Of course, perhaps I'm just looking for a reason to use the previously linked song in my classroom/blog. (Note to Drexel University...there's a copy write thing at the bottom of my blog too....lol)

Thank you, Park City Mathematics Institute

I was blown away following the Park City Math Institute online from twitter this year. I knew about the Park City curriculum, but wasn't aware the summer institute existed.  I found it fun, and the little comments in the margin really made me feel like someone was cheering me on.   Kudos to you guys and I'm soooo jealous of the ppl who were actually there.   (Any t-shirts still available?  I'll pay!!)

I'm looking at teaching algebra 2 and statistics and I want to thank you, because you got me thinking as to how I will challenge my kids.  Probability is not my first unit, it's actually supposed to be second, but I think it will be third this year.   I need a little more time to get my students to want to know things.   I'm trying to consider what kinds of questions I can ask before starting a topic. (see the previous posting about pre-teaching)  I want my kids ripping probability situations apart, in more than 1 way before I teach it.

I can't assume prior knowledge in inner-city students, especially in the suburbs of Detroit.   I need to put it in there.  I need to introduce low entry probability questions to use as warm-ups.  The pre-teaching has two effects, it gets the kids used to thinking about probabilities and it gives me the chance to see how they are looking at those ideas.  I really like the train problems from 2007 (day 5) as it is a real low entry question, which can be scaled up to allow me to use the idea a couple times.  Also the paper ripping problems (day 1), for the same reasons.    Also, from 2007 (day 4)  I want the kids playing with the finding the area of a staircase problem.

There are a bunch of other great questions in there.  I have starred about 5-6 of them, from the 2007 set I've mentioned and from this year's set (also on probability).   Those I want to save for when I'm actually in the probability unit.

If you haven't looked through the Park City Mathematics Institute's materials, and if you are teaching high school leveled math, then you should be.  2001 - 2012 problem sets

EDIT:  Thank you to Cal Armstrong (@sig225) on twitter who gave me the link for this year's problem sets.  2013 problem sets