Univariate Project

I truly love the idea of giving projects to my students, it is amazing to watch them gather their own data on topics that interest them! I always allow the kiddos to choose a partner because math is simply more fun when you can discuss and collaborate with peers (just ask my co-author, RJ 😏).

For this project, students are asked to collect a set of univariate data dealing with something that interests them. For learners that struggle to come up with ideas, I lead them to CensusAtSchool. If you teach statistics and have never visited this website, it's a must for fast and easy data sets.

One of the main reasons I like this particular project is that students are collecting real data and their data sets are often not "clean" like the ones found in textbooks. I love to hear them dazzled by the fact that Q1 can actually equal the minimum - talk about an ugly boxplot! See the photo above for examples of student submissions.

For a copy of the student handout (actually, I email it to them) and rubric, click here. Speaking of rubrics, I'm not sure how you grade your projects, but I love using Google Sheets. To the right is the template of my spreadsheet for this project and what the students receive. I create a tab for each pair of students or project. But if you're interested, Alice Keeler (love her) has shared a Template Tab which will run a tab for each student and email them a link to their particular rubric - you just have to upload the information. This is a terrific tool that I have (of course) messed up. Apparently, once the tabs are created, you shouldn't rearrange them - I had a lot of students emailing me that they received the wrong rubric. Ugh. But life is full of trial and error!

I hope you can use this with your classes!

~SSB

Comments

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

Polynomial Picture Project

Projects allow the students to show off their creativity and math skills! This one requires students to use Desmos to help create a polynomial function that fits a picture of their choice. As you can see with some of the projects below - the ideas vary immensely. Some of the students are very clever and others just use the McDonald's sign. However, each year, the students amaze us at what they find. Instead of using their calculators - here's how Desmos will find the regression line. In my video, I just did a simple quadratic, but our students have to create a regression equation that requires at least 3 relative extrema. Typically, we show the students how to use the Desmos regression option before sharing the project. Some students have trouble fitting the graphs because they choose too many points, and others are upset that it doesn't fit perfectly! We reassure our students that this is the best fit - not a perfect fit. Once students have the reg...

Logarithm & Exponential Concentration Game

Lecture is inevitable, but I like to divide up that time with small, hopefully fun activities. We all need a break from time to time, including ME!!! I found this activity here , and instantly loved it. After explaining how to rewrite logarithms and exponentials, this game provided students with the perfect practice. Just like the concentration game, students place all cards face down and then flip two cards over. They look for an exponential and logarithmic pair. If they find a match, YAY! If not, they have to turn them back over and lose their turn. This is a fast activity; it took my kids about 15 minutes. Even though it was short, I think the students enjoyed not having to listen to me for the entire class! I'm okay with that; I enjoyed taking a break from talking! :) I could have cut out the activity that I found online, but I am a little OCD when it comes to fonts. So, I created a new version using the same problems. Here it is: Concentr...

Girl Math

Search This Blog