Riemann Sums Coastal Erosion Project

Our school has embraced STEM over the past few years. That's actually our signature program. While, I am not a STEM teacher, I feel that it is important to incorporate those topics into my classroom.

I originally got the idea from this site in which you have to be a member. I actually created an introduction as a Desmos activity using their resources. So the students start off by finding the area of a beach. (We live at the beach, so this works perfect for my kiddos.) This introduction allows the students to use any shapes to estimate the area since we haven't had any instruction on Riemann Sums or Trapezoidal Rule. Then I teach the students about these estimation tools.

So, from that introduction, I got the idea to create a project. The students must find an aerial picture of a beach that has eroded. (Some students actually found pictures from our beaches.) They had to research coastal erosion and how it affects our community, and find some solutions to stop or slow down coastal erosion.

So, basically, they found two pictures...before and after. Then using a ruler (found online) they calculated the distance of both pictures using a scale. Some of the pictures didn't have a scale, which was discouraging, but I let them make up a realistic scale. The students had to use Desmos to create a table and graph using 10 sub-intervals. Using the table, they utilized Riemann Sums and the Trapezoidal Rule to estimate the area of the before and after. Then found the area lost due to erosion.

Here are some examples:

I really enjoyed grading these projects! So here it is: Coastal Erosion Project

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I'm always looking for improvements!

~RJ

Bitmoji Image

Comments

AP Calculus Hunger Games Review

I created this a couple of years ago when Hunger Games was really popular. However, I thought that I would share with all of you in case you wanted to use or revamp to something newer. I created 12 groups for the 12 districts. They decided what their name would be as a district. They had tasks each day to accomplish. The tasks were just multiple choice questions centered around the major topics of Calculus AB. This took a lot longer than I thought - about 4 days. I was forced to give them more than 15 minutes for each task (which did not make me happy since the AP exam is timed - Oh well.) I had the time, and it worked out. You can decide how you want to the points to work, I gave them 2 points for each correct answer. It was very easy to grade as this is the student worksheet. They placed the letter of the answer in each spot. I made them show all work on another student sheet so that I could see what we needed to review. Each day, I would post the new rankin

Adding & Subtracting Rational Expressions Drag & Drop

Because Math 3 now has drag & drop on the final exam, students need the practice. So, I created one using Google Slides. It went over really well! While this only took the students about 40-45 minutes to complete, it took me about 2 days to create this activity. Oh well, at least it is cute! :) I used Google Drawings to create the scene and took a screenshot of the drawing to post as the background in Google Slides. This worked so that students could only move the answers. I created this for an Honors class and one of the problems (#5 - the one pictured) really stumped the kiddos. I loved it! They kept thinking that x - 1 was not part of the common denominator...they didn't realize that they needed to simplify after subtracting. It really made them think! When they were finished, they shared it with me! I really think that this helped the kids get more practice on drag & drop while working on adding and subtracting rational expressions! Here is the ac

Exponential Growth & Decay Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunts are always fun (and easy to grade). This particular one is all about applications of exponential growth & decay. My students seem to understand this topic really well, but I still wanted to provide more practice. When I did this hunt originally, I created the cards with the answer on the front and the question on the back. Once I figured out how to copy and make it work, it was great because I could use the cards over and over again. However, they started looking old, and I lost some of the cards. So t his year, I placed the answer and question on the front. It made it so much easier to copy! If you would like to try this in your class, here is a copy ! I included the solutions as well. UPDATE: I created this activity and transformed into a remote version. Remote Version: SE Scavenger Hunt TE Scavenger Hunt ~RJ

Girl Math

Search This Blog