Monthly Archives: May 2011

‘Derive This Way’ Calculus Videos

These are both videos based on a parody of 'Born This Way' by Lady Gaga.  Personally, I don't like her music, but that's because I don't listen enough to the radio to know any of her songs.  However, I did find both of these videos very amusing in their own ways.  They were uploaded to YouTube only 1 day apart and of course, they are having their own little debate over whose idea came first.  Who cares!  Just enjoy the videos.
And by the way, I really am doing more than just spending my summer finding random YouTube videos about Calculus.  =D

Links to Student Created MindMaps

These are some MindMaps that were created by some of my former students in a Pre-Algebra course.

Football Coaching VS. Math – Juan's MindMap
Algebra – Betty's MindMap
Addition – Porche's MindMap
Math OverView – Shaniqua's MindMap
Whole Numbers – Holly's MindMap
Basic Math Help – Matt's MindMap
Integers – Rico's MindMap
Positive & Negative Numbers – Jamal's MindMap
Algebra – Jaron's MindMap
Income – Aaron's MindMap

Demo of Foldable Fraction Activity

Last week someone suggested that I try using ‘Foldables’ in my classes, but I didn’t know what those were at the time.  So, I decided to do a little research, and this is what I came up with.  I can send the template to you as well, if you would like.

Fraction Activity

More Videos

I first heard about these two videos from this Tech the Pluge post, but what isn’t mentioned there is that there are more videos that can be found.

Additional Videos: Getting Triggy Wit It and Teach Me How To Factor

Additional Videos:  Facebook for Math Nerds, Glee for Math Nerds, The Tonsil Hockey Team

How Do You Feel About Math? Activity

I eluded to the fact that I was going to do this activity last week on Twitter.  And here are some of the pictures that students picked out of magazines to describe the way that feel about math.  Yes, there are more pictures than comments, but one of the comments ‘Math makes me feel crazy’ was used to describe a few of the pictures.  Overall, I think the class had a good time with the activity.  I learned a lot about the students and the students learned a lot about each other.  Also, I think that it made the students feel a little better knowing that they aren’t in a boat by themselves when it comes to how they feel about math.  So, I would definitely recommend doing this activity in your own classroom.  

‘Math makes me feel like I need a drink.’
‘Math makes me feel crazy.’
‘Math makes me want to jump off the edge.’
‘Math makes me feel like I’ve been knocked down.’
‘Math makes me feel like my brains been taken to the cleaners.’
‘Math makes me think that is an never-ending stream.’

Imag0016
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Imag0020
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Imag0022
Imag0023

See the full gallery on Posterous

Rubric.pdf
Download this file

 

Scotch Tape and Gas Prices Dilemma

So, my whole recent obsession with Scotch Tape sort of began a few weeks ago when the following problem popped into my mind…

Suppose your boss wants you to buy six 1/2 in x 450 in rolls of Scotch tape at the dollar store (remember the 6% Michigan sales tax).  Your boss wants you to use the tape to enclose an area of 3,225.8 square cm, but has only given you a budget of $7.00 to do so, including the amount of gas to drive back and forth to the dollar store, which is exactly 1.5 miles away from work.  Your car gets 0.0735 liters per kilometer city (you will not be taking the highway), gas is $4.09 per gallon, and your boss does not care about the gas that it takes to actually start your car.  Do you have enough tape to enclose the area that your boss asked to have enclosed?  If you do have enough tape, explain why.  If you do not have enough tape, do you at least have enough money to buy another roll of tape?  If you need to buy another roll of tape, but cannot afford to, how much short would you be?  If this is the case, would it be worth it to pay the amount out of your own pocket, or would you rather call your boss and explain the situation?

Tape

Thought-Provoking Proportion Challenge Problems

I totally meant to share these problems a few weeks ago, but I wanted to try it out with my classes first.  However, I got so distracted with doing my Capture & Recapture Lab that we never got to the worksheet.  Yes, I did a Capture & Recapture lab for my Beginning Algebra Classes to help demonstrate how proportions might be used as part of a method of estimation.  Several students told me that without the lab, they wouldn’t have really understood exactly why we even needed proportions.  That made me happy.  So, here we are after the semester has already ended and I never used these problems.  But I thought that I would share them anyway.

Proportion.pdf
Download this file