Girl Math

I always love a scavenger hunt! They are really easy to grade, and the students know where they went wrong if they loop around too early.  This creates a great learning opportunity. The conversations that I heard today were amazing! I mean, these kids are always great at working together, but today was extra special. This is a great way to practice without giving a boring worksheet!  Plus...it's fun for me to watch the students move around the classroom. I mean, they sit ALL day long! I made this a while ago, so in the pictures, you see the students flipping the cards to see the question. For y'all, I put the question and the answer on the same side. It was just easier, because honestly, I don't remember how I copied the papers to get front and back. I probably couldn't do it again if I tried. :) Here is the in class activity: U-Sub  Scavenger Hunt   Here is the NEW digital version: Scavenger Hunt I used SlidesGo for the Treasure Hunt template!  ~R...

Sampling Distributions can be a bit tricky for students to truly understand and a strong introduction is needed to help ease confusion from the beginning.  In the past, I have tried many different activities, but I have finally found the one.  Yes, The One.  Students were even thanking me as they left the class on a job well-done.  A spreadsheet with the 2016 MLB Players' Salaries was shared with me by a dear colleague a couple of months ago.  Unfortunately, I have already forgotten who it was.  Too bad, because I'd really love to give him (I know that much) props as the sheet is setup beautifully!  Create a copy here .  Here's how it went down... I sent a force-copy of the 2016 MLB Salary sheet to my students via email.  Once everyone had it open, we began choosing random numbers from 1-862 (the number of baseball players).  The first set had n = 2, so each student chose 2 players at random.  The beauty is, they only had to t...

Yay - another Digital Breakout! I'm pretty proud of this one! These always take so long to develop and this was a beast. However, it was well worth it!  The topics include:  Characteristics of f(x) using f'(x) & f"(x) (inc,dec,concavity)   Related Rates Absolute and relative extrema  Mean Value Theorem  I created the breakout as a supplemental review for our unit test coming up tomorrow! Even though some students would rather have a pencil paper review, I feel that others may need an alternate approach. So, I decided to try both for this review. One day, students worked on a paper version review, and today, they did the breakout. I'm hoping to see an improvement in test grades! We will see!  Here is a link to the breakout. Try it out first and see if you like it! Link to Digital Breakout Teacher Notes   ~RJ

Who doesn't love a game of Clue? A couple of years ago, I created a stations review where students must determine who dunnit. This year, I converted that to a Deck.Toys activity.  Students move around the house, answering multiple choice questions. The answer choices correspond to a suspect, murder weapon, or a location. When a person, place, or thing is selected by the answer, they must write down the station number on the student worksheet AND type in the answer on Deck.Toys. Thus, finding the murderer, murder weapon, and the murder location when everything else has been eliminated.  At the end of the Deck.Toys, I created a sort where students must determine who dunnit . Deck.Toys makes it so easy to check on the student's progress! So, I can easily see which groups were correct!  If you don't like the Deck.Toys version, I have also included the link to the station activity.  Related Rates/Optimization (Deck.Toys version)   Related Rates/...

If you're looking for interesting ways to get your AP Statistics students involved with bivariate data, try this project. Students are asked to find data sets that make sense to use regression.  This is the hardest part for the kiddos because they struggle being creative and finding items that interest them yet still meet the criteria for bivariate data sets.  They usually Google the topic and choose the first set that pops up.  Of course, I figured that out pretty fast- now they must have n >  30.  This really helps in the long run because we use Google Sheets for all calculations and it's great having the students playing with large data sets not from a textbook.   This project ( make a copy here ) has the learners exploring visual displays, numerical summaries, and (of course) using context throughout.  They even use Sheets for finding, graphing, and interpreting residuals.   Overall, I enjoy this project as the learners get ...

I search the internet A LOT to find ideas. I had noticed teachers starting to do Two Truths & a Lie, so I thought I would try it with Calculus.  We have been discussing characteristics of functions and how to sketch the graphs of polynomials and rational functions using Calculus. I love this part of the unit - students finally see how calculus relates to topics that they have learned in the past. My students on the other hand aren't so happy...I hear all the time - We have a graphing calculator, why not use it? Thank you AP for making part of the exam calculator inactive so my students don't complain AS much since they know that it will be on AP exam. :)  The gist - students are given one function, instructions (I didn't use that this year), and a post-it note.  They found critical numbers, inflection points, increasing, decreasing, concave up, concave down, extrema, and sketched the curve for their ONE problem. I also made them write a justification for each ...

Vectors are so misunderstood by students... until now (hopefully)!  I have created a HyperDoc that introduces vectors through Vector, from Despicable Me .  Students watch a short video clip of Vector explaining why his name is Vector.  It's super cute and informative!  Of course, this activity gets a little more challenging! After the intro (Part 1), students are taken to an EdPuzzle video where they must answer a few questions, even though the instructions explicitly say to put answers in the HyperDoc, if you plan on using this activity, you may want to reiterate that point, or create a new EdPuzzle for your classroom.  This video was a good idea, but I have over 30 students in one room and only a handful of students had earbuds; so it got a little loud. Part 3 has students going to a Calculus 2 website that uses dot products in three dimensions on top of some other cool (in a math geeky way) stuff.  It's a challenge but very doable.  Plus, they c...

At some point in your high school math teacher career, I'm sure you've heard of this project.  I was introduced to it about 7 years ago from a former colleague who loved playing with math as much as I do.  I haven't used it in a while, not sure why though 😦.  But I pulled it back out again this semester- and it went well!  Feel free to make a copy for yourself; just click here . I only did Part 1 with my students.  It came down to lack of time and the class itself- we can't spend too much time on any one project, they get bored and lose interest pretty fast.  But I think Part 2 of this project would be great for an Honors Math 3 class with a little time on their hands! Here's the gist: students are asked to look at three different models of a roller coaster and evaluate different aspects of polynomials such as zeros, relative max/min, increasing/decreasing, and using values to find heights at certain time intervals.  On top of this, learner...

Last year, I decided to create a Breakout, so I used some of these questions for that. However, I thought I would share the stations activity that I used to do with Particle Motion.  I have 12 cards posted around the room. Each card has a multiple choice question with words next to the answers. Students must work in groups to answer the questions while showing all work on the student worksheet. When the students have finished all stations, one person from the group grabs a sheet from me! The sheet has many blanks and the students must unscramble the words to create a joke.  This is just another way for students to practice this important concept! It also allows them to work on AP "like" exam questions. I know that the exam has moved to 4 answer choices, but I kinda enjoy the throwback to the old days!  Even though, I switched to a Breakout, I know that I have this just in case  I don't have enough time!  Velocity Jokes   ~RJ

Breakouts are so much fun to do in class, but they take FOREVER to set up the first time. However, it is so worth it!  I had a lot going on in this breakout. Students were up and about because clues were hidden around the room and in lockers. There were hidden messages, QR codes, Google Forms, and so much more.  The topics included:  Implicit Differentiation  Particle Motion  Derivative Rules (focus exp & log) Here are the teacher notes:  (When I say homecube - that's just the name of the pencil box that we bought to have an extra small box)  Step 1: Students are given the big black box, an iPad, and Implicit Differentiation Questions taped to bottom of big black box. Step 2: Implicit Differentiation questions open the Big Black Box with 3 Digit Lock: 860 Step 3: Big Black box contains Arrows with numbers written in invisible ink, flashlight (no batteries), small black box, homecube, and velocity key questions Step 4:...

Instead of the boring worksheet review, I created a Deck.Toys review of exponential and logarithmic functions. The kids loved it! All students were on task! I really like the jigsaw portion, where students must put the jigsaw together, answer the question, and then use that answer to unlock the next event.  Here is a list of the topics that I included:  Graphing Exponential and Logarithmic Functions  Finding domain, range, asymptotes, increasing or decreasing Modeling with exponential regression  Growth and Decay applications including Pert   Condensing and expanding logarithms  Solving exponential and log equations   This is a sample of the sort activity:  Here is a link to the activity: Exp/Log Deck.Toys Review ~RJ

I know HyperDocs are relatively new to the education scene, but they truly are an amazing pedagogical tool.  If you are on the fence about trying one (or even creating one), check out this post from Cult of Pedagogy- Gonzalez really nails the benefits.  And they can be used in a higher-level math classroom! Preface: I did not teach one half-life problem before this activity.  However, we had already learned logarithms and their properties. For this activity, I had students working in pairs and emailed them a link to the HyperDoc that forced a copy to their Google Drive (just like this link here!).  It was a little crazy in the beginning because the first task is to listen to an EdPuzzle video, so it was loud, but the kiddos started getting into it.  Yes, into Half-Life. The middle two parts of this HyperDoc were problems that I had found on Google.  (I had a lot of stolen borrowed items for this to HyperDoc work.) For the last part of the activit...

We all need more practice, so this activity just allows students to apply their knowledge to most of the derivative rules. It includes - power, product, quotient, and chain rule along with trig derivatives.  I post the hearts around the room and give the students about 10-12 minutes per station. When the buzzer goes off...they move to the next station.  This is just a way to allow for more practice on a topic that they will use for the rest of the year!  Here is the activity:  I 💓 Derivatives  ~RJ

As with every project that repeats itself each semester, I get bored with it.  So when it came time to give a project with my PreCalculus kiddos... I. Could. Not. Do. The. Weather. Project. One. More. Time.  While the weather project is sufficient, I needed to move on. I reached deep for this one!  About 20 years ago (when I was a young Buc), I worked with a teacher who shared the Snoring Pigs project with me.  Of course, that was before Desmos and all things Google Suite- so I had a little work on my end to make it more relevant to today's resources.  And I think it worked well!  The students had fun creating their presentations and I was not bored grading them! Feel free to make a copy with the link above and edit as you see fit.  The only thing I would want to change in the future is adding a vertical shift.  I'll let you know if I figure out how to better the challenge for my students. Good luck! ~SSB

I have found that some students just take a lot longer to understand how to graph derivatives given the original function, while some students just understand right away. So, I am always looking for an activity to help those students that struggle.   I have tried a lot of things, but this year, I found this Desmos Activity , and I LOVED it! I think I saw it from a tweet by Dan Meyer (who you should follow if you don't already).  This is the description of the activity from Desmos:   In this activity, students will practice matching a function to its first and second derivatives. Then they'll create their own function and after successfully matching it to its derivatives, submit it into the gallery as a challenge for their classmates to solve. I really like how the students create their own equation for other students to match the function to the first and second derivative. Most of my kiddos were trying to stump the others by creating some difficu...

I'm not sure about you, but when my students come to AP Statistics, they are shocked at how much writing and how little numbers there are in the assignments.   Several years ago, I changed around my course so that I began with Experimental Design.  This came as a suggestion from several Upper-Echelon AP Stats gurus. So, I had to try to it!  I love it.  I think it really drives the point home about having to communicate mathematically with words.  It just sets the mood for the course. Back to my point about this blog.  To break up the monotony of all the vocabulary in this first unit, I created a Tangram in the form of Dominoes so my students could practice definitions.  It was a good time!  Feel free to use this in your class 😊

I just love digital breakouts! The students get to practice and review in such a cool way. The kids have to navigate on a website through distractions, hidden messages, and links! How can that not be fun?  Since limits lead us right into derivatives. I thought it would be fun to create a breakout centered around obtaining a "deriver's" permit. The students really got into it and wanted me to actually print out their permit to keep with them all year! Later in the year, I have a physical breakout where the kids can earn their actual deriver's license.  If you want to check it out - click:  Limit Breakout  (I haven't updated to the new Google Sites yet, but plan to next year!)  Here is a sneak peak at one of the items in the breakout:  Just remember that if you use the link above with your students - I will get the responses. I have included all of the documents and copies of the forms that I used below in case you want to create your website with t...

Today was the first day back for our kids from Hurricane Florence, so what should we do?  All of the students were affected by the storm and some lost their entire home.  I really needed to keep today fairly light... but true to my form, I couldn't just do nothing!  Let's try a FRAPPY! (Free Response Advanced Placement Problem, Yay!).  But I wanted a twist on the traditional version. Low and behold, it hit me like a freight train: Gallery Walk.  I met an AP Statistics teacher at the Reading a few years ago and he told me how he and a colleague received grants to have white boards line all walls in their classrooms.  This way, students can work in their space and others can easily view their products and discuss.  Genius.  Of course, I did not get a grant- I haven't even tried- but I do have individual white boards for my students to use. Here's how it went down...  Because we're in the Experimental Design Unit, I chose to use the releas...

I tried a Desmos card sort last semester with my class...it was a disaster! I placed too many cards on the same page and my kids went crazy!   I updated it last year after I saw the catastrophe happen. I used my new sort this semester, and it went over WAY better! I only needed the activity to last for about 15-20 minutes, so this worked out perfectly with the shorter version.  Another thing that I did differently- used the iPads! They make it easier for students to use on these small desks!  I just 💓 Desmos!  Domain & Range Piecewise Desmos Card Sort ~RJ 

Well...we just got back into school after being out for almost 3 weeks because of hurricane Florence. Our school is okay, but there are many people out there suffering from losing so much. :(  I had planned on a project for Calculus before the storm but will have to put that aside until next year! We have just lost too much time. However, I wanted to still share the project with you guys in case you would like to try it or something similar to it.   I like to make projects a unique experience. I hate when all students do the same thing. #1 - students can and WILL copy. #2 - It's boring to grade!  The idea of this project is floating somewhere on the web. I honestly can't remember where I got the idea. But I have altered it over the years to meet the needs of my students. It has gone through many alterations, and I will continue to change things.  So it is not perfect!  The gist - students find a recipe that has at least 5 ingredients. (The recipe ...