MPM1D1 - Day 12 Hula Hoop Relay

We started with a number talk. I asked students find as many ways as possible to figure out 12 times 18 without a calculator. There was lots of good thinking and most students were able to come up with the answer. They seem hung up on the answer rather than the process. I'm more interested in the process. We saw a few different solutions and I showed a couple more. I need to work at getting students to not stop once they get the answer. I don't think anyone tried to find the answer more than one way.

It's been such a gorgeous week weather wise that it's been hard to work inside. When I saw this tweet from @MrHoggsClass I figured this would be a great excuse to get outside.

Hula hoop relay today in #MPM1D. How long would it take for 28 students? For the whole school? @scdsbmath pic.twitter.com/cv1OCWNoIh

— Mr. Hogg (@MrHoggsClass) September 15, 2017

Today was the day to try it. I had students work in groups of 5. I showed this video and gave them this handout and a hula hoop and we headed out to the front of the school. I had forgotten that when you mention to grade nine students that you're heading outside, they tend not to listen after that. As a result three quarters of them were missing either something to write with or the page to write on. I should have mentioned it more than once. Next time.

Eventually they collected and recorded how long it took their group to complete the relay and then the determined how long it would take for our class and the school to do the relay. Some of them asked if we were going to try it as a class. They were really excited. We will try it but not until everyone is finished. Once they were done that I wanted them to see how long it would take for 1 person, 2 people...5 people. They were to fill in the table then create a scatter plot.

I was hoping to head back to the classroom and show them how to get an equation for the line of best fit using Desmos, but we didn't get to it today. A number of students weren't going to finish in class. We'll have a look at it again later.

We headed back into the classroom to do a mastery test on fractions before the bell went.