Make'em Think

High school level tasks you can implement on Monday

Zach Cresswell

Mt. Pleasant High School

Twitter: @z_cress

cresswellzach@gmail.com

Presentation

bit.ly/MakeEmThink2017

What are we really accomplishing as math educators?

  • Develop logical thinkers
  • Develop persistent and flexible problem solvers
  • Prepare students for higher level math
  • Send positive messages about mathematics

Jo Boaler

The highest scoring PISA test students are those that approach problems with a mathematical mindset, not those that try to simply memorize methods (p. 47)

Important Aspects of a Quality Math Task

  • Challenging but Accessible
  • See the task as a puzzle
  • Visual thinking component
  • Develop own way of thinking about problem first
  • Classroom environment where Students aren't afraid to make mistakes and respect each other's thinking
  • Student's use their own ideas (not the textbook's)
  • Student's ultimately work together

Why I get up each day

First Activity

Desmos Smiley

 

Please go to student.desmos.com

 

Type in the code:   MVE3J

Purpose

  • Refresh
  • Orientation to Desmos
  • Persistance 
  • Graphing horizontal and vertical lines
  • Graphing lines
  • Restricting domains (inequality notation)
  • Graphing circles
  • Graphing parabolas
  • Translations

Debrief

Second Activity

Composition/Operations on Functions

Purpose

  • Make predictions about function behavior
  • Connect analytic and graphical representations of functions
  • Play with mathematics

Debrief

Third Activity

Side-Side-Angle

Purpose

  • Use tools to explore math
  • Concrete to abstract
  • Attend to precision
  • Anchor

Activity Link

Follow Up Worksheet Link

I wrote about this:

www.zachcresswell.org/side-side-angle-ambiguity/

Debrief

Other Tasks

(All titles are hyperlinked)

Functions Reversed

Students are given a domain (sometimes a range as well) and they have to create a function that fits the criteria.

What is a radian?

Secant/Tangent Line Gif project

Students recreate the animation below

I wrote about this here:

www.zachcresswell.org/the-gift-of-curiosity/

Connecting Zeros and Factors

Volumes of Known Cross Sections

WhiteBoard Starts

Properties of logarithms

Feeling Trig Functions

Closing

xkcd.com/605/

Suggestions

  • Collaborate
  • Think about how you learned the concept
  • Develop your network
  • Leverage your resources

Resources

Contact

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