Educational Reflections (formerly Rumblings from 52): Math, Comma test, Chloe's question on Algebra & Homework

Friday, January 27, 2017

Math, Comma test, Chloe's question on Algebra & Homework

I will begin by presenting a few examples of Magic Triangles. We are using them in Math and I know this will be something completely new for a number of people.

Now, how do you use them? They are used to find a certain value that is unknown to us.
Think of the first triangle as modeling the simple area for finding the area of a Triangle:

The Magic Triangle will assist us in finding the area of this Triangle. In this triangle, b and h are side by side, similar to how they are in the formula. This means they will be multiplied together; the divided by 2 portion of the formula is posted in the corner of the h box.

Although this explanation of how a Magic Triangle works is not for the area of a Triangle, it may help you understand the idea a little more:

The triangles I posted in orange are to demonstrate what to do when you are looking for the base or height of the triangle when the area has been provided for you. These are the type of questions we will be looking at.

A tutorial sheet, with an example question, was given out. It looks like this:

A page of Math homework was handed out. Some of the questions ask for either the base or height, when the area is provided and some do not. There are also some questions that ask for the area of a rectangle and a parallelogram. This formula simply is base x height.

http://www.softschools.com/math/geometry/topics/area_of_triangles_part_1/

The Open-book comma test will happen on Monday. If you would like to check out the passage I am using for it, take a look at http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/the-true-origins-of-x-men-20140526. I read the article to the students about the outsider status the X-Men had; they were Mutants and considered outcasts. Stan Lee, of Marvel Comic fame, was making some social-political commentary with these heroes!

The rules for the test will be available for the students to look at. Those rules have been handed out to the students and they should have them. If not, I have uploaded them to the Google Classroom site.

http://marvel.com/comics/issue/12413/uncanny_x-men_1963_1

On the topic of Superheroes, the planning sheet for the Biodiversity was discussed and handed out. I am going to post the documents on the Google Classroom site. The link is on the side of this page. Once you log in, go to the ABOUT link and click. You will find the handouts there, which you can download and print.

This sheet, which I did not give out, but will on Monday, may help you with your planning of your hero and making connections between your Strengths and superpowers!

Correction:

When I put up this question the other day, I drew in the height of one of the triangles incorrectly. I changed it.

Chloe's question on Algebra:

Earlier in the week, Chloe asked about where you see Algebra in everyday life. I used the example of ordering a Pizza and was kind of stuck until I foud this page:

http://education.seattlepi.com/real-life-applications-algebra-objectives-2405.html

It then became obvious that we use Algebra so much! When there are major sales and we notices like 30% off, we have to be able to use Algebra to calculate how much the deduction will be and what the final cost will be; this doesn't even take into consideration what the sales tax will be.
Thanks for the question. It keeps learning real.