Category: tasks
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What? How do YOU spend your two-hour school delays?, Water Content in a Snow Cylinder
As anyone in town for NCTM in Denver know, it’s been a bit snowy here this week. In fact, Fort Collins just had its biggest snowfall of the year. But how big? We had a two hour school delay this morning as my daughter and I were greeted by this on our back doorstep. “Wow…
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Evaluating energy efficiency claims
Artifact This (or other) energy efficient light bulb package(s). So many opportunities here, depending on how targeted you want to be. Or, if you prefer, what kind of problem you plan to facilitate. There’s a clear nod to systems of linear equations (when one compares the time of payoff). There’s also an opportunity for some…
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How does one provide the complex data of global warming to students?
Update (3/12/2013): An atmospheric scientist friend of mine, Katie, suggested a few edits to this post, primarily to clear up a few of the tools listed here. The edits are in bold. My initial thesis on this post was originally going to be “why don’t teachers let students investigate global warming very often?” While this…
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CNET has some TV viewing size/distance recommendations.
Feels like there’s a similarity (and a lot of other stuff) type problem in here. Artifact From CNET: In a perfect videophile world, you’d want to sit no closer than 1.5 times the screen’s diagonal measurement, and no farther than twice that measurement to the TV. For example, for a 50-inch TV, you’d sit between…
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More math food blogging: I may need some help from my Southern friends.
I think I may have an eating problem. Or just a eating mathematically problem. Here’s my problem today. Delicious, delicious pigs-in-a-blanket (from pillsbury.com): Pigs-in-a-blanket, for the uninitiated, are little hot dog/sausage type things warmly embraced by crescent rolls dough. In fact, that’s the ingredient list: Little sausages. A can of crescent rolls dough. Cooking instructions: Wrap those…
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Area, Overlap, and Sandwich Meat Efficiency
I find myself writing about food a lot on this here blog. I’m starting to wonder if one could construct a whole thematic unit around the Math of Food. Or create a “meal” from appetizer, main course, and desert items. Or maybe I just need to eat breakfast. Artifact Good Sandwich Guide. Not sure where…
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Who doesn’t want to relive the 2000 election? (Stats problem)
We’ll take a slight detour from my college readiness manifesto (that hasn’t even really started yet) to bring you the following election-related problem. Then again, this problem was lifted directly from a graduate level Statistics class, so this might give some insight into what college readiness could potentially look like. Hadn’t thought of that. Enjoy!…
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Do violent video games cause violence? One Social Studies teacher’s experience teaching Math
(A lot of people have heroes. Many of those heroes are athletes or celebrities. For others, they are cops, firefighters, and teachers. One of mine is Lee Fleming, a co-worker, friend, and inspiration. Lee has taught Social Studies and Spanish. A couple weeks ago, she added “Math” to that impressive resume, despite never being formally taught math…
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Sprinklers, Circles, Sectors and such (my first real foray into Geogebratubing)
First off, I basically stole this from @NatBanting. And when I say “basically”, I mean “entirely.” Here’s the original blog post where you can see his frustratingly boob-shaped backyard. I tried to video my backyard but I didn’t have a good ladder to get a good vantage point. And my roof is terrifyingly steep. And…
emergent math 