How Big is that Pumpkin?
November 2, 2010, 12:00 amThis is the second time I’ve done this lesson. You can read up on the previous attempt here.
Quick synopsis: There is a local contest to determine how much a large pumpkin weighs, the winner receives a year Family subscription to the YMCA (worth about $800). This contest concludes on Halloween...
Cartalk puzzler #2 logic – Rowena’s Picture
October 24, 2010, 12:00 amHere’s a great puzzler for logic.
Princess Rowena
Evil King Raymond and the White Knight
RAY: This puzzler comes from the days of knights and kings and fair maidens. Once upon a time, the fair maiden Rowena wished to wed. Her father, the evil King Raymond has devised a way to drive off suito...
Paper Towels WCYDWT
October 23, 2010, 12:00 amAs the subtitle to this blog suggests, I look for patterns. What questions do you have after seeing these three pictures of paper towel packaging?
Addition: For those who’d like the prices for the “giant” and “big”.
(Virtual) Scavenger Hunt – Pairs of Angles
October 19, 2010, 12:00 amI put together this quick six question activity that combines pairs of angles (complementary, supplementary, linear pairs, and vertical angles) and some basic algebra. The idea is that the students need to answer the question, then to get to the next problem they need to go to a webpage with the...
Car Talk Puzzler (Dance Party)
October 18, 2010, 12:00 amI don’t know if you listen to Car Talk, but maybe you should give it a try. Its a weekly radio show on NPR and podcasts are available. Essentially it is a call-in show for car questions and the hosts, Tom and Ray (aka Click and Clack), are very funny and their answers are pretty good too.
Anyway...
Knockoff Project: The Aftermath
October 15, 2010, 12:00 amThe first project that we did in Applied math was called the Knockoff Project. This was a brand new project meant to utilize the 21st century classroom and the Project Based Learning initiative that this class is now based on. The drive behind the project was to design a “knockoff” phone that im...
Spot the error.
October 4, 2010, 12:00 amHe is a birthday present from my sister in law. Awesome gift, I’m going to put it over the clock in my room (there would be rioting, but the kids can’t read an analogue clock anyway).
But can you spot the error?
Data Density
September 30, 2010, 12:00 amFollowing question driven by seeing a box of floppy discs in tech room.
Question: How large would the floppy disk have to be to hold a hard drive of content?
Facts:
- A floppy disk holds 1.44 MB
- The largest consumer hard drive is 2 TB
Size of a desk? room? building? field? town?
E...
Cake:Frosting (A look into a proper ratio of real math:cool tech)
September 29, 2010, 12:00 amWith all the new technology in the classroom (see this post), I’ve been interested in trying out the new toys. One of those toys is the 25 laptops (dell inspiron 11z, small and cheap) which are loaded up with some great software.
For the Intro to Geometry unit, we go through the definitions, sy...
Big Bad Wolf (a SBG tale)
September 23, 2010, 12:00 amI am the Big Bad Wolf.
The students are some mix of the three little pigs. 
They don’t know yet that I am the Big Bad Wolf, and they are building away at their houses. However this story is a bit different because I’m going to tell them which set of houses that I’m going to attempt t...