Geometry in our World - Middle School Math Project

So I have taught middle school math for many years and one of my goals is always to try to make
connections for the students.  Allow them to realize the importance of mathematics in the creation of our world as well as our current lives.  I have tried a few times to create projects around math in the everyday world and have always felt like they fell flat.  Students seemed to always struggle with the concept of math in our world.  Somehow the Fibanacci Sequence comes out and students become fixated and confused by the aspects of it.  They just could never really build the connection and learn anything. 

This year I decided to try once again, with my head held high and expectations booming to see what I could do with this topic.  I wanted the students to see the beauty of how math has shaped our lives.  I decided to change the focus from all math to just Geometry in our World.  This is a project that I actually had ongoing throughout the entire first term.    I gave them four general topics and allowed them to choose a theme for each topic.  They then had to find out what they could about the topic in that theme and give me 4 examples of their findings.

Here is the link to the criteria: Geometry in our world

Cribbage in the Class

I am lucky enough to have a lot of freedom with the students that I teach.  I teach a group of gifted students all day long.  I am supposed to try to challenge the students in a variety of ways.  Students bring in laptops, tablets and Ipods and they try to stay connected to them all day long.  My partner and I decided that we want our students to learn about things that are not necessarily technology based.  We have started with gaming in the class.  Our original goal was to have the kids learn a game and make them communicate with each other.  We started by asking how many students knew how to play the game.  Out of the 53 students we teach, we had 2 students who even heard of it before.  In our mind , it is a good start because when teaching gifted students it is often hard to find things that they have not investigated.  I quickly put together an research investigation so that they could begin to learn terminology, rules and strategy.  The students started with a bit of a groan!  I also went out and started buying crib boards so that we had enough for the students.  I found a dollar store that sold them for $5 and bought enough for the class to play partner cribbage.  Decks of cards from the local casino also helped keep the cost down as well.  Once the students understood the basic rules and I had some boards, it was time to play.  Observing became quite interesting in the class once they started.  Here is what I noticed:

Fun Fair Probability - Middle School Math Project

Okay, so this is pretty obvious but is still extremely fun to do.  I have done this many times during the month of June because it keeps the kids focussed.   Sometimes I even tell the kids that it is not going to be formally assessed but the expectations still need to be met. 

The basic concept is that the students work in partners and create a game that is probability based.  This automatically rules out many games that are skill based (throwing darts or basketball tosses) unless they can prove its probability based.  Next the students brainstorm ideas from games they have already seen from fairs and generate their own ideas.  I almost always make students generate their own ideas and proposals before I put them in partners or groups.  They have to come to the table with something or they work alone.  (This creates accountability and those students who just can't complete assignments and now won't be another student's problem but I can work with them in a smaller group with other similar students).  While they come up with their game concept, I begin teaching probability of single and two events.  The criteria I give them has them create a game where they have a minor prize and a major prize.  I usually give them a general rule of minor prize should be around 1 in 5 and a major prize around 1 in 20.  This gives them a sense of how they need to create the game.  Many games have 2 stages (or events like a plinko board they may have to hit the winner twice for a major once for a minor) while others just make one event with different options (for example the classic choose a rubber duck from the pond. only 1 of the 20 is major while 4 have minor).  The figure out the theoretical probability of their game and build it.  It helps to have many decks of cards and lots of dice around because students use them.  The creativity of the games can be quite amazing just as much as it can be underwhelming.  I have had the students bring in prized that they will give away, or I have collected money and bought the prizes myself so that all prizes are equal (therefore people don't choose a game to get a better prize),  or one year I had some PAC money that I was allowed to spend and put it towards the prizes.

Smarties / Skittles - Data Analysis and Graphing Project

This idea didn't come from me.  It has been borrowed from a teacher I worked with years ago.  I took her idea and changed it a bit.  I have also adapted it based on whatever I want to teach that year, which makes it great. 

So even though this project may be difficult to connect to the real world and the question math teacher get the most "Why are we doing this", it is a lot of fun for the students.  Yes , it is based on candy which immediately gets their attention. 

I have used this to teach bar graphs, circle graphs, central tendenciesExcel, theoretical and experimental probability and even stem and leaf plots. The kids really seem to enjoy it and are generally interested in the results.

Here are the basics - bring in a box of Smarties or a bag of skittles.  Some students bring in huge family size bags but only an individual package is necessary.  There job is to graph the different colours that occur in the candy package.  Using probability I will ask them the chances of reaching in and grabbing a red one.  Or have them experiment on how often a red one comes out.  Yes it is silly but the kids get into it and learn because of the candy.  The display that they put together will have four graphs. The graphs open up and underneath the student explains the style of graph on top.  The can explain the data or explain the purpose of that style of graph. 

Examples:  I have done this a few times and so there are different styles here

Becoming an Abacist - Middle School Math Project

I start the most years with numeration and understanding the number system.  I found that they enjoy starting the year with a project and get right into it.  I thought of this one summer and shared the idea with a few teachers (strangely a friend of mine thought of the same idea and planned the same project without us sharing it).  The idea is that we build an abacus or actually we made a soroban and learned out to use it properly. 

We used some youtube videos to help understand the sorobans and the students went to work making the abacus. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px_hvzYS3_Y&feature=share&list=FLb3QBPNaCFvuf1dE-FddGdA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvsnftXXKdw&feature=share&list=FLb3QBPNaCFvuf1dE-FddGdA



We used beads and thread and different shoeboxes but many of them turned out to be too big to use well.  The successful ones were made from box tops or lids and a few students used wooden skewers instead of thread.  I will post pictures of examples soon.

My friend used a popsicle stick method and was happy with those.

In designing and creating them the students were suddenly also using some measurement as well to put it together.  It was quite fun watching how the students built there own. 

The biggest benefit of using this project was that the students started to understand what base 10 measnt because of the nature of the abacus.  We also worked on adding and subtracting with an abacus and the students began naturally understanding why we line up the columns when using these operations.

Here is the criteria sheet that I gave the students: It is also free at my  TPT link:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Supporting a Family - Middle School Math project

This project idea came out of trying to have awareness for needy families.  I have tried different versions of this project many times and have had success in every way with it.  The students really love this project.  They get the chance to bring in advertisements, catalogs and flyers as well as shopping online.  They really enjoy the challenge of trying to shop for a family and helping them out.  I have done this around Christmas time with a lot of success.  The students learn about adding, subtracting and multiplying with decimals, staying within a budget and about how much presents cost during the holiday season.  We also added in pricing out all the materials for Christmas dinner and this year actually took our classes to the local grocery store to price it all out.  The people working there were awesome and taught our kids about what gets taxed and what doesn't.    What I genreally do is create many different types of needy families and make some more challenging than others and then selectively distribute them to the kids. 

The displays and creativity of the procjects coming in have been amazing.  Christmas trees, stockings, prezis, powerpoints, posters, mock presents have all been parts of projects recieved during this project.  I have also been amazed at how seriously most students take this and often have them come to me with coupons and deals that they have found.  I usually accept all of them but the students have to show the calculations on how much savings there are.

Here is one of the criteria sheets I give.  All the criteria sheets are here. 

Middle School Math Project - Geometric Robot

I was looking for a way to build things with my kids because I had a few students who were quite skilled at it.  I don't remember if I made this one up or if I got the idea from somewhere but I know for sure that if I did borrow this idea I changed some things for the kids in my class.  The general idea is that we are sending up a robot to a different planet and need to build something with storage.  I had the students build robots by either giving them some nets or they designed it themselves.  Paper or cardboard was used by most of the students but a few also went to the school's  shop and built their ideas with wood.  They learned about different geometric solids, area and volume.  They had to draw out their plans and then try to build it.  The students really enjoyed this project and it was pretty easily adaptable for advanced learners as well as struggling learners. 

Here is the criteria sheet that I gave them:

Middle School Math resource - Problem Solving

Working in a classroom with many different levels can be quite challenging.  Finding resources that motivate all students is something that we strive for.  One of the resources that I use is the Problem of the Week from the University of Waterloo.  These have been great for my class. Each week they send out problems at different grade levels.  I print out copies of all the levels and give the students the choice of which ones they want to try.  The levels are grade based with Grade 5/6,  7/8, 9/10, and 11/12.  I have some students who work at the 5/6 while others attempt the 11/12.  The great thing for my problem solving class is that I don't have the answers for the problems and so I am able to work through some of the problems with the class.  They get to see an authentic attempt at problem solving by me and see how I go about trying to figure it out with them.  They also give their input when they see my thinking is wrong or question when something doesn't make sense.  Waterloo gives you a week to figure it out before they put out their detailed answers.  These have been great for the class as they get excited to see the answers and see if their thinking was correct and they are able to work at a level that is comfortable for them. 

Here is the link:  http://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/resources/potw.php 

If you have a great problem solving website , please share.

Middle School Math Project - Mystery Number

I have always tried teaching students about Number Theory near the beginning of the year so that we can all have an understanding of the vocabulary that we will all need for the rest of the year.  I put some mystery number challenges in with some of the problem solving that I do with my students and they all enjoyed them.  We started creating our own and voila a new project was born.  Students have found this project fun just because they can make a puzzle with it and challenge others.  I have also had students put these on the display board outside of the room (another teacher's idea: not mine) and they attract quite an interest from other students.  The general idea is to learn things like prime, factors, multiples, but you could challenge students to put many other concepts in.  The criteria that I give them is below. 

Middle School Math Projects - Treasure Island

This project came to me while trying to cover a few topics at the same time near the end of the year.  Angles, probablity, measurement and I fit in ratios as well.  This project has been borrowed by quite a few people and adapted in many different ways.  The idea is that the student are pirates and need to bury their treasure.  The must make a treasure map and give directions on where the treasure is buried.  There are many things you can do with it.  Here is my original criteria sheet that I handed out to students.  The possibilites of what can be done here are endless.

Math projects for Middle School - Designing a hotel

As an educator in Middle school for over a decade I have been actively creating math projects.  I also at times run out of ideas and am always looking for collaboration.  I figured this out a few years ago when on a learning team about Math and again recently when I changed jobs and now have the chance to discuss ideas with my partner.  Through the discussion new projects are created.  My idea here is to post different projects that I have created but hope that others will post there ideas as well. 

My first post is a new idea that my partner and I recently put together.  The idea revolves around students designing a Las Vegas style hotel.  See the Criteria Sheet I put together and make comments if you wish. If you use the idea, it would be great to see the results of what you did.  We have not used this idea yet but it is going to be our next project.  Feel free to change anything in the project, we are hoping to have the students build there hotels with either foam board or cardboard and then have a Vegas type day where the students have a chance to go to the hotel and play some of the games there.  We will hopefully make a miniature Vegas Strip for kids.  I will try to post some pictures when the project is done.

Please also see my update post at: http://underbutover.blogspot.ca/2013/04/designing-hotel-update-middle-school.html