Yesterday, as I was eating breakfast, I watched a few segments of the Today Show.  And I happened to catch a segment about keeping your kids engaged while they are stuck inside during a snowstorm.  Friday’s weather forecasted the east coast to be hit with a snowstorm again this weekend. 

I wasn’t really paying that much attention yet, but I think plug for the upcoming segment said something about technology being a part of 5 ways you can keep your children busy when they can’t go outside this weekend.  Goodhousekeeping magazine was sponsoring the segment, as the full story is in this month’s issue.

So, I thought, okay, this might be interesting.  Let’s see what they have to say.

·         Make a digital photo album at Shutterfly, CVS Photo Center, or OurHubBub

·         Get a high-quality iPod dock station

·         Make popcorn by putting the kernels in a specially made bowl that allows you to pop them in the microwave

·         Join a DVD movie exchange service

Yes, I know that’s only 4.  But that’s all we were shown.

When I heard about the idea of using Shutterfly, I thought, sure, that is fun and engaging.   It also allows parents to bond with their kids and tell stories about the memories preserved in the digital pictures.  And you can tie in a bunch of math without even knowing it – cropping, changing the resolution, placement of the photos.   I myself am a fan of Shutterfly, and thought this a worthy idea.

I was surprised when the next idea and recommendation was to buy a high-quality iPod dock station.  And I think Meredith Viera was a little surprised to.  She said something on the lines of “Oh, to listen to music while you read a book perhaps.”   I love music, and usually you can hear something playing in the background no matter where I am at.  But, go out and buy a high-quality iPod dock station right before a snowstorm so that your kids are engaged?  Meredith even questioned the price and practicality of having a two-foot tall dock station.    

The next two ideas obviously went together.  Make yummy, delicious, and healthier popcorn in a bowl that allows you to pop the kernel instead of using the pre-made popcorn bags.   Why not?  Personally, I like air-popped popcorn better.  I might even go find one of these new popping bowls.    And now that you have your healthy popcorn, put your kids in front a television to watch a movie that you just happened to receive in the mail before the snowstorm hit.  (Kung Fu Panda was the DVD most visible among the stack of 20 or so DVDS.)

You’ve got to be kidding me.  These are the best ways to engage your kids if they can’t go outside?

I was quite dismayed, and bothered, that this was the advice that the Today Show and Goodhousekeeping were giving.

There didn’t seem to be much thought in the quality of how to use these gadgets as activities to stimulate the brain and open the door to learning (except for the digital photo album idea) while stuck inside because of a snowstorm.

So, let’s see what we can do with these 4 (not 5) recommendations.

·         While listening to music through a high-quality iPod dock station, spend 60 minutes reading your favorite childhood stories to your children.  When you are done, choose your favorite short story, or selection, and insert the text to create a Wordle (see my previous post Math Vocabulary Becomes Art). 

·         Choose a topic such as the ABCs of math or science, and have your children search the house (and even outdoors if the snow stops falling) to take pictures of those items.  Then, use a digital photo album service to create a mini-photo book of their ABCs.   Oh, and don’t forget to have some music playing in the background!

·         Plan in advance to have a copy of movies that will inspire your child to be the best they can and embrace learning and the world around them.  I recommend 3 documentaries: Spellbound (2002), Paperclips (2004), and Mad Hot Ballroom (2005).  Pop some popcorn and sit together and discuss the issues and stories while doing everything you can to not dance while watching young kids from Brooklyn learn how to ballroom dance, or spell as any words as you can during the 1999 National Spelling Bee.

For those of you on the east coast, I hope the storm wasn’t too bad.  And I hope you found ways to keep your kids busy!

P.S.  I love living in Arizona!

The New Year’s Eve ball has dropped in Times Square and we are now 4 days into 2009.

With the start of another year, many of us take time to reminisce about times past and reflect upon the achievements of those who came before us.

Here’s a little something for us technology enthusiasts:

2009 marks the 40^th birthday of the public debut of Douglas Engelbart’s computer mouse.

40 Years of the Mouse is currenlty being featured on MSN chronicling the debut and evolution of the computer’s most revered sidekick.

The mouse has come a long way since December 1968, and I have used many of them: the Microsoft Mouse 2.0 to the Apple iMac Mouse to a Logitech wireless mouse.

Although I mainly work off of a laptop, I can’t imagine not having my little wireless mouse with me!  To be honest, I feel like am without a limb if I don’t have my mouse with me; I just can’t work as efficiently without it!

For more on the mouse:

How Stuff Works:  How Computer Mice Work

In about 6 hours Eastern Standard Time, the magnificently decorated New Year’s Eve Ball will once again descend 77 feet (23 meters) over the course of a minute₁ to symbolize the passage of time while millions of people gather together to ring in the year 2009.

There haven’t been too many New Year’s Eves that I haven’t witnessed this televised traditional event.  And as a kid, was always awed by how the ball would drop as time ticked away on the television screen.  Since the dawn of the new millennium, the New Year’s Eve ball has truly been a magnificent piece of artwork from the designers at Waterford Crystal, and I am ever more still eager to watch its brilliance descend from the heights of the New York skyline.

2009 gets a make-over

This year, the ball is a 12 foot (in diameter) geodesic sphere based on a truncated icosahedron, weighing in at 11,875 pounds.  It is covered by 2,668 Waterford crystals and illuminated with 32,256 LED lights (about 3 times more than last year). And even will all this, the ball is more energy efficient than ever, consuming only the same amount of energy per hour as it would take to operate two traditional home ovens₂.

I can’t wait to see the show that will be put on this year as the ball descends, and with the enhancement of technology is capable of producing 16 million colors and billons of kaleidoscope patterns.  It’s sure to be a spectacular show!

In the classroom

The design and new facts of the New Year’s Eve ball lends itself to a variety of math problems to be solved.  One in particular that comes to mind is in regards to the overall surface area of the ball.

The New Year’s Eve ball is not quite a sphere, it’s a geodesic sphere (think of EPCOT at Disneyworld).  Its surface is made up of many triangles, with these triangles having different dimensions because of the curvature of the sphere₃.  So, we would need to know the dimensions of every kind of triangle and how many of those different triangles to calculate the surface area.

But, if we simply considered the New Year’s Eve ball as being a sphere, we can use the formula .  After the calculations, we find the surface area is approximately 452.39 square feet.

S = 4(Pi)r².  With what we know about the 2009 ball, our radius is 6 feet.  Therefore, S = 4(Pi)6²

What if we were to fill the New Year’s Eve ball with a bunch of confetti?  How much confetti can the ball hold?

As with surface area we have a formula that we can use to fine the volume: V = 4/3(Pi)³

I’d much rather explore the volume of sphere with a 3-D interactive animation that helps me to build conceptualization of the concept.

Adaptive Curriculum offers such a resource in “Volume of a Sphere.”  In this Activity Object dynamic modeling is used to derive the formula for the volume of a sphere from the formula for the volume of a pyramid.  As the user changes the number of pyramids in the sphere they observe the relationship between the sum of the volume of the pyramids and the volume of the sphere.  The visualization of deriving this formula assists students in understanding where the formula came from and also strengthens reasoning abilities.  The final visualization reminds me a little of the New Year’s Eve ball!

For more on the New Year’s Eve ball:

• Time’s Square Alliance
• Modern Marvels: New Year’s Eve Ball Drop
• New Year’s Eve Ball Grows Bigger and Brighter

References:

1. Times Square Ball.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square_Ball  Retrieved December 31, 2008.
2. Time’s  Square Alliance.  http://www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye_ball.html   Retrieved December 31, 2008.
3. Geodesic dome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome   Retrieved December 31, 2008

Over the weekend, my husband was at a local coffee shop and the change he received for his large hot mocha included a two-dollar bill.

The bill was crisp and clean; series dated 2003A, and looked like it had never seen the insides of a wallet.

And that got me wondering to when the last time was that I had seen a two-dollar bill.

 Two-dollar Tid-bits

I did a search about the two-dollar bill on the website for the U.S. Department of Treasury.  

 Here’s what I found on the FAQs about Currency denominations:

• The Federal Reserve System does not request the printing of the two-dollar bill as often as the others.
• The Series 2003A $2 bill was the last printed and bears the names of former Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow and Treasurer Rosario Marin.
• As of April 30, 2007 there were $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide.

The modern two-dollar bill was issued in 1976 for the U.S. Bicentennial. I have one of those 590,720,000 notes as a memento of my birth year!

For the Teachers and Students

Browsing the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Education link, I found a plethora of other useful and interesting information for today’s youth and teachers.

I especially liked the For the Kids! where you can find kid-friendly websites on topics such as the White House, the U.S. Mint, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Since my mind was on currency, I took a look at the U.S. Mint site and had fun reading about coin circulation facts and coloring the Arizona state quarter.  I also found many links for teachers, including lesson plans.

What are the Chances?

In 2004, 121,600,000 of the newest $2 bills, Series 2003A, were printed for the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.  A new issue of Series 2003A $2 bills was printed from July to September 2006 for all 12 Federal Reserve Banks. In all, 220,800,000 notes were printed_1.

So, the single two-dollar bill that my husband encountered is one of 342,400,000 printed between 2004-2006.

Some say that it is bad luck if you come across a two-dollar bill.  Others say the two-dollar bill is fake.  And then there are some who are intrigued by the rarity and collect them!  My interest was certainly sparked by the rare occurrence.  Is yours?

References:

1.    United States two dollar bill. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_two-dollar_bill

So, I’m sitting in the conference room with two fellow instructional coaches, and I just showed them Wordle.  And all three of us are intrigued with how we can use this Internet based classroom tool.

Wordle is a tool for displaying words as a graphic image.  The size of the words is a relative indicator of their frequency of use. You can read more about Wordle on Ed-tech-4-Science.

In Wordle:  Seeing Science Images as Art, Dr. Rillero, I was immediately intrigued by what Wordle creates with text. Here’re my Wordle art for this blog:

So, why would a classroom teacher want to spend time on Wordle? 

The word analysis and count feature gives teachers important information as to how often academic content vocabulary terms are used in a text.  In regards to assessments, knowing how many times content vocabulary is used can help the teacher make sure he/she is using the same terminology in their instructional delivery.

This week is benchmark assessment week in the Avondale School District.  So, I immediately thought of the math assessments hundreds of students will be taking on Monday.

I thought it would be interesting to “see” what words were most often used in the 6^th grade assessment.  Knowing that this quarter’s focus was on fractions, I was expecting to see words related to fractions as the largest ones in the art creation.  

I should note that I included only the text for the questions stems, not the answers.  This is what I got:

I was really surprised that “ate” was one of the largest words.  Using the word count feature, I found out it was used 13 times.  “Multiply” was used 10.  This tells me that many of the fraction problems are given in the context of eating some type of food!  Maybe a redesign of some of these problems is necessary.  Fractions can be used in many other contexts! I wonder what kind of Wordle art the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) practice tests would create?

In the Math Classroom

I can easily see a math teacher using the information provided by Wordle in a data analysis unit.  The word count provided with each Wordle art is a good source of data to be graphed and analyzed.  Students can use current event articles posted online from sources such as CNN, FOXNews or BearEssential News as the text, and do an analysis of the word usage.  The data can be interpreted (and displayed) in many different ways:  content vs. everyday language, frequency of word usage, or even determining the frequency of how many words with 3, 4, or 5 letters.   

The possibilities are vast with Wordle.  Share your thoughts and Wordle art with us!

So, I bet you were wondering what happened with the 8^th grade students from Mr. K’s class? 

Well, plans changed.  As they do so often in our daily lesson plans!

I ended up spending Friday afternoon with Mr. K and two of his 7^th grade classes.

The focus of the week’s lessons was on probability, and Mr. K was still determined to use Adaptive Curriculum as part of his instructional delivery with the SmartBoard.

Adaptive Curriculum has a few Activity Objects for probability:

• Probability with Tree Diagrams
• Find the Given Probability
• Playing with Probability
• Analyze Experimental Probability Using Graphs
• Experimental and Theoretical Probability

After briefly previewing these Activity Objects with Mr. K during his morning prep period, he decided to use “Find the Given Probability.”

Mr. K had success in both his classes in using this Activity Object.  One of my favorite moments was when we first started the Activity Object and all the students were dead silent and watching the SmartBoard as the introduction was given.  After some time went by and students were being given a chance to come up to the SmartBoard, I heard comments of “Oh, you got it!” and “That’s awesome!”  It got even better when students were working together with each other to solve the problems and could barely stay in their seats for want of getting to the SmartBoard and solve the problem!

At the end of the lesson, Mr. K asked the students to reflect on their learning.  Here’s what a few students had to say:

“I learned an easier way to do probability.  The good thing about the activity is that you’re basically making your own problems.  It was really fun.  I loved the project.”  W. B

“I learned to use probability in a better way.  It gives a good challenge.  I really liked it.”  P. G.

“I learned that you have to multiply the smaller probabilities to get a final one.  I liked the animations and interactive learning.  I would recommend this program to any math teacher.”  J. G.

Sometimes you just need a new way to “see” the math.

On Monday, I observed what was to be an 8^th grade math lesson on solving for angles of triangles. 

I watched Mr. K’s 50-minute class period go by with homework being corrected and recorded, a few problems from the homework reviewed, and a start at classifying triangles.

In the middle of explaining the relevant terms (scalene, isosceles, acute, obtuse, etc.) Mr. K stopped, as there appeared to be some confusion about the relationship between the interior angles of a triangle.  So, he had the students cut out a triangle and complete the following:

• Label each angle as 1, 2, and 3.
• Cut off the corners of the triangle, making sure you can still read the numbers.
• Arrange the cut corners by matching angles 2 and 3; and then angle 1 to 2.

After this, students were asked to observe the arrangement.  The conclusion was that the sum of the angle measurements in the triangle totals 180 degrees, and that was true for all triangles.  This can be observed because the straight edges of the triangle all match up and form one edge, or a straight angle.

Here’s a clip from TeacherTube on this same activity:

 Triangle Angle Sum

The triangle activity Mr. K had the students complete was a good way to review previous learning.  It was hands-on and focused on conceptualization.  In fact, it was already used in the direct instruction of the lesson the previous week.

But, the lesson just didn’t seem to go the way Mr. K wanted.

Maybe it was because Monday was the first day back after the Thanksgiving break or maybe it was that these 8^th grade students just weren’t interested in math on a Monday morning.  Or maybe they just needed to “see” the math in a different way.

I talked to Mr. K after the lesson about the overall engagement of the students and the activity they worked on, and I asked him to stop by my office after school as I had a resource to show him that I thought would help him in his next lessons.

We looked at Adaptive Curriculum’s “Type of Triangles” in which dynamic modeling is used to create different triangles so that students can observe the changes in angle and side measurements as it relates to classification. 

I chose this Activity Object not just because it focuses on the content being addressed in Mr. K’s lesson, but it allows for excellent use of Mr. K’s Smart Board, which would allow the students to get more engaged and involved in the lesson about the relevant vocabulary.

The plan was that we would use this Tuesday with his two classes. 

This morning, we played around with “Types of Triangles” a little bit more and also looked at “Interior and Exterior Angles of Triangles.”  Mr. K was excited about both of these Activity Objects and we played and discussed them for about 40 minutes.  Mr. K decided that he wanted to spend some more time with these Activity Objects before using them with the class and we made a new plan to use them on Friday.

I’m excited that Mr. K is excited! And I’m looking forward to spending more time in his classroom on Friday. 

I’ll let you know how it goes with the students on Friday and how Adaptive Curriculum’s Activity Objects allowed students to “see” math in a new way. 

Check back this weekend for an update on the lesson!

Tired of playing the same old board games or just sitting around watching movies?

Try Blokus!

This multi-award winning (2004 Teacher’s Choice Award and Mensa Best Mind Game Award of 2003, just to name a few) is one of the best board games that I have come across!

Blokus, a game of strategy, was created in 2000 by Bernard Tavitian, a French mathematician.  The game stems from the Four Color Theorem and the use of polyominoes as the pieces, and is a bit reminiscent of Tetris.  Not only is this game highly engaging and competitive, it builds on your spatial reasoning and logic skills.

Winning the game may seem simple:  be the first to place all your pieces (polyominoes) on the game board.

The only restriction is that each new piece you place on the board must touch another piece of the same color only at the corners (hence the connection to the Four Color Theorem)! 

If you don’t have time to run out to the store before Thanksgiving Day arrives, you can play online and compete against players around the world.

Or, you can download Blokus World Tour (for a small fee) and play on your computer.  The graphics and competitions are much better at Blokus World Tour and you just can’t help but to keep playing until you win each of the different tournaments.  I’m currently at playing Tournament 6 – The Berlin Showdown – where best out of five of the Classic 2 Player and Duo games wins you the tournament.

Once you begin playing, I guarantee that you’ll be hooked!  And hopefully you’ll get to claim the title of being the first player in your family to place all their pieces on the board!  A title I proudly hold! 

Oh, did I mention that you get 50 bonus points if the very last piece you place is the single square piece?

Read more about what people are saying about Blokus at Blogus. 

This morning, when I went online (my browser opens to MSN), and had scanned the homepage any faster, I would have missed two unique articles!

At first, the article “20 Thing You Didn’t Know About … Pencils” flashed before my eyes.   So, naturally, being the math teacher that I am, I opened the link and read about 20 things I didn’t know about pencils.  Dean Christopher (Discovery Magazine) lists some very interesting factoids about our beloved pencil.

Did you know …

• The average pencil has enough graphite to draw a line about 35 miles long
• The first American pencil factory opened in 1861 in New York City
• The word pencil derives from the Latin “penicilus,” meaning “little tail”

You can read the rest of Christopher’s pencil facts at “20 Things You Didn’t Know About … Pencils“.

And if pencils weren’t interesting enough, the next headline to catch my eyes was “ ‘Smoot’ reaches new heights in MIT.”

I can’t remember why I opened this link, but when I did, I read about the 50^th anniversary of using a “Smoot” as a unit of measurement.  In 1958, Oliver Smoot and his fraternity brothers at MIT measured the Harvard Bridge using Oliver as the unit of measurement!    They found that the bridge was approximately 364.4 Smoots long (Oliver measured 5 feet and 7 inches).  Smoot later became the chairman of the American National Standards Institute.

So, how could I not look for more information on the Smoot?

I didn’t really come across anything more than what I had already read.  But, I did find a nice article from Cross & Crescent, a publication from Smoot’s fraternity.  And I found on Google calculator that 35 feet = 6.26865672 Smoots.

Ferris Bueller said it best:  “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”