Girl Math

Here is our  Area Project . To finish up our Triangle Trig Unit, we always give this project. We took this idea and updated it to work with our students.  Using Google Maps, our kids get to pick any place around the world. They use the measure distance tool to find the area of the piece of land. Their mission - to prove that Google has the correct area using triangle trig.  Students must create a quadrilateral, use a protractor overlay (png) image to find one angle, create a diagonal, find the diagonal using Law of Cosines, find the opposite angle, and then use the area formula to find the area of both triangles. Another portion of the project is to explain (in words) their mathematical correctness. The students also must come up with a creative story selling the piece of land.  Here are some submissions from our students this semester:  We really love this project! It gives students a chance to show off their creativity while demonstrating their knowledge of triangl

I'm pretty sure you have seen this activity before! It's nothing new. However, I gave it an updated spin using Google Suite.  I created a  HyperDoc  where students read an article and collaborate to complete a Google Sheet. The article claims that there are more yellow skittles in each package. Well, we all know, since it is on the internet - it's true. 😂  Well, we decided to do our own experiment. I did spend some $ on this activity, but I ordered the skittles from Amazon, and feel that I saved some money that way.  I would typically do this in groups of 2, but I have a small class this year, and I wanted more data. I had each student count the number of red, yellow, green, purple, and orange skittles in each bag. I shared the Google Sheet so that each student could edit, and they typed in the data from their bag. I love using Google as a collaboration tool.  Once all students were finished, I had them go back to the Google Doc and complete the table usin

If you teach any sort of geometry, you know it can be fun to learn.  However, creating a PowerPoint or worksheet (eye-roll) can be daunting with all of the figures.  I mean, I am no artist - it's hard for me to draw 3D objects on the board, much less on a computer.  And why would I when my students can create them? I begin by having students create geometric nets with paper.  This gets them working with their hands and creating 3D objects from 2D sheets.  I found these printable nets online and they work wonderfully. (Aren't educators who share their work terrific?  It makes my job so much easier!)  Of course, the first time I had my kiddos build geometric nets, it was awful!  I did not know how long it would take for each one and I had my students making 4 each.  Well, I learned from my mistake and now have the class in groups of 4 with each student cutting and taping 2 nets.  For me, I want the students to be familiar with the shapes and their names before moving on to the

Moving forward in my Math 3 (formerly known as Algebra 2) class, we are beginning equations of circles.  Now, I always try to find a fun, short introduction activity to get my kiddos interested in the topic at hand - sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't... but at least I try 😎 If you are teaching upper-level or honors students (or even on-level with some time on your hands), you may want to start by having your kids read this article  (good tool for a discussion) or watch this video  - full disclosure, the video is a little dry, but can help with showing learners what to expect with this activity.  As a matter of fact, the video answers these two questions that I ask before we begin and demonstrates how they are going to use triangulation.  I'm really kicking myself for not showing it first.  I mean, it's only 3 minutes long! Once students have seen a demonstration of triangulation, they pick up some graph paper and a compass that I always have on hand.  Their ta

Our district encourages teachers to try new things. They offer Digital Teaching and Learning Awesome Badges . Teachers learn about new digital teaching techniques while earning CEU credit. Teachers can also show off their earned badges on their web-page and email signature. At our school, we even have a competition between departments to see who can win the most badges. My colleague, SSB, and I have the most from the math department. We are in a close battle with the English department! We must win!!!! 😁 My next conquest is the Aurasma (now HP Reveal) Badge. My AFM class just started a new lesson on surveys and sampling techniques. I typically just go through each technique using my PowerPoint presentation, and students copy the notes down on their guided notes. I thought this would be a great time to try HP Reveal and earn a badge - I can get my students to watch videos and then complete the notes on their own.  I searched for aurasma online tutorials and thought they were very

This is one of my favorite lessons.  Depending on the class and the amount of time I have to dedicate to this activity, I have several versions.  But almost all versions have popcorn involved.  I love popcorn. You can begin by giving students a plain piece of computer paper with very little instruction (I love giving minimal instruction as it allows the students to be creative).  Their task is to make a 3-dimensional object with the paper that has the maximum volume.  They can use scissors and tape, but cannot extend the paper with the tape.  I will fill what they create with popcorn.  The more volume, the more popcorn!  And yes, I buy bulk popcorn for this activity, which I pass on to all of my students in other classes.  A lot of times, movie theaters will donate a bag, other times I just go to a local popcorn store and buy a big bag for $10.  It's worth it.  Plus, did I mention that popcorn is my favorite snack? Once students have openly discussed their 3D shape and why they

Tired of boring worksheets? Why not try to revamp it? Turn that old worksheet into engaging practice that adheres to the Kinesthetic  learning style.  Students moving around, collaborating, and doing math! Too good to be true? No way - we took a worksheet and created stations centered around a review of vectors.  Pretty simple idea, students move around the room and complete tasks. Neither of us believe in homework, so this is a perfect way to provide more guided practice.  To introduce application problems involving vectors, we use the Illuminations - Boat to Island online demonstration. This is an amazing visualization of how real-world vectors affect objects.  We simply projected the demonstration to the class and had them discuss how current and boat velocity move the path of the boat.  You can also give students time to play around in this site to really understand the basic workings of resultant vectors. If you are interested, here is our activity: Vectors Rock!   ~

How do you have time for all of this?   That is question that most educators ask me when we discuss doing meaningful, engaging activities for students - on a regular basis.  This could be taken in one of two ways: 1) how do you have time to plan and organize all of these activities for your students?  and 2) how do you have time to complete the curriculum? I don't do any of these things and I barely finish! My response, how do you not find the time to engage your students?  Let's be honest, my class sizes are in the 30s and I teach at a very large public high school.  Due to the time I spend on non-lecture lessons, some teachers assume I teach at a small private school with very well-behaved students that walk in single file lines during class change.  Nope, just an average teacher here with normal high school students.  And some days (like today), I just want to have a little fun with the kiddos.  So I took some precious time out of my curriculum and we did a fun St. Patrick

SOHCAHTOA... so many ways to teach our students to remember this.  Personally, I've never been comfortable with the "hippie" story and I know there are others ( here is a site dedicated to mnemonics) out there like this story of the Legend .  But luckily, RJ and I teach Pre-Calculus so the kiddos come to us (hopefully) already knowing the basics - we get to take their knowledge and turn it into application! For this activity, we pulled together 12 of our favorite right triangle application problems - some we made up and others have been around for ages.  We put answers on one side and the questions on the other.  We even put the questions upside-down so that the students could just flip the card up and not have to take it off the wall.  The cherubs are in groups of 3 and begin at any numbered card.  They flip the card, complete the task, and then find the numbered card with that answer.  Repeat.   As with all classroom scavenger hunts, there are many pros!   Stude

My colleague, SSB, has already shared some digital breakouts. I can't share mine because I took a TPT STEM activity to create the breakout. However, I wanted to share my experiences with digital breakouts and the amazing activity that I bought from TPT.   I have already talked about Clark Creative Math  and his awesome resources. I bought this activity - CSI: Series . Sigma Lazyeight has been terrorizing New York City and the students must travel to different places through scenes, unlock the cryptic message, and determine who Lazyeight is out of a list of suspects. Pretty cool, if you ask me! (I actually got my school to pay for the entire Pre-Calculus bundle. Well worth the $.) In the past, I printed out a packet for each student, but once we went into a copy crisis at my school, I couldn't afford to any longer. I still wanted to give my students the chance to do this lesson, so I decided to make it into a digital breakout using Google tools.  Using G Drawing, I found

Today, I finished my lesson today about 15 minutes early, so I had some time to kill. I made a recursive relay years ago, and I thought I would bring it back again.  I grouped together 4 students. I created cards with 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The first student received the 2nd card, the second student got the 3rd card, and so on. The first student also received a small whiteboard and marker.  On a small whiteboard, I wrote down the first recursive equation and the first term. I placed it under the document camera and let the students GO! (I didn't want to write the equation on the big whiteboard because I didn't want any groups to get a head start.) So the first student had to find the 2nd term then pass the whiteboard on to the next person to find the 3rd term, and so on. I had the last person (5th term) to raise their hand when they were finished.  I don't have my students in rows - my classroom is setup in stadium seating. So, if any students were having troubl

Investigation and student accountability is extremely important in education today. Students need to be challenged! They will learn so much more by discovering the formulas rather than me just placing the formula on the board!  While talking to my intern about not finding anything cool dealing with recursive sequences, I got an idea. I wanted my kids to find a pattern and develop the arithmetic and geometric recursive formulas using the information that they already know.  I created a cut and paste activity where students had to match the sequence, the type, the common difference/ratio, the explicit formula, and the recursive formula. From that, I hoped that students would be able to see a pattern! On a note card, I had them answer three questions...describe any patterns that you see, write a general recursive arithmetic formula, and write a general recursive geometric formula.   The students did an awesome job until they were asked to produce the general recursive formula. Ari

This is the first time I have tried this project in this manner for AP Statistics.  In the past, I have had students look online for bivariate data, and perform statistic-y stuff with it.  However, students would just Google " bivariate data " and, inevitably, I would have many of the same projects - ice cream sales and temperature.  How boring? Fast forward to last week when I was searching for a file in my drive and ran across a Stations Activity shared by Jared Derksen (check out his blog here ) with me.  I started looking through the stations and thought, "Why have I not done this before?"  Well, that changed! Jared originally had 8 stations in his activity, some of the stations dealt with perishable food.  I do not know about you, but I need to be able to keep things in my room to use for student activities.  Basically, I'm so last minute that I worry when I pull out this activity next time, I will not have the items on hand.  So, I changed the Cheerios

Everyone's favorite lesson... Law of Sines and the Ambiguous Case!  No teacher ever dreads this, right?  I mean, the students pick it up immediately.  Okay, in all seriousness, our kiddos may struggle with this in the beginning so we feel it's important to allow them to create each scenario of the ambiguous case using this hands-on activity.   Clearly, this is not an original activity (I stole a version decades ago - no clue from where).  However, we have updated it to work with our particular students and our personalities.  If you are interested in a copy, just click here . In this version of the Ambiguous Case activity, we have students using dry erase markers on their desks.  For some reason, this is pretty exciting for them - I guess they have been reprimanded in the past for writing on desks... huh.  My philosophy?  As long as they clean it before they leave, what does it matter?  Of course, I provide them with disinfecting wipes.  They don't even realize they'

You CAN do too much of one thing...like scavenger hunts. I have already done two this year in AFM, so I wanted to change things up a little. How? you ask - by creating a riddle word scramble with a scavenger hunt!!!!! I have no idea why I chose to make this activity to the theme of Where's Waldo? I was probably thinking of a candy cane, and Waldo popped into my head. Who knows?  As for most of the things I post on here, this is not a discovery or investigation using higher level thinking...this is how I give practice. If you have seen my other posts, you know I don't give homework. 😄 So, instead of a boring worksheet, I like to allow students to move, collaborate, and have some fun while attempting to practice the material.  For this activity, I have cardstock sheets posted around the room. With students divided into groups, they start at one location, answer the question, and look for the answer around the room. I know, I know, sounds like a scavenger hunt. But wait..