Activities
Introduction:
Students will be given post-it notes and asked to contribute at least one answer to the question “What Mathematics means to me and how it plays a role in my daily life?” Students may complete more than one, but record only one idea per note. As students record their ideas, all post-it’s are brought to the front of the room as a visual. Read all notes as a class and begin a discussion about how to categorize the ideas based on their similarities. Based on the discussion of ideas, students will write a reflection to summarize today’s activity.
Everyday Math in my Community:
Using previous discussions as inspiration, students will interview an adult (family member or friend) to answer the question “How do you use math in your life, job, or studies?” Their goal will be to identify specific connections between math and the adult’s life. For example, making calculations, handling money, created budgets, taking measurements, analyzing numeric data, etc. Students will participate in a mock interview with a teacher to begin to develop the questions they will ask during their personal interview. Using notes from the mock interview as a model, students will brainstorm who they will interview and the questions they will ask. Students’ homework will be to complete their interview and bring the answers to class.
Everyday Math in my Community- Part 2:
Students will work in partners to create a word problem based on the answers to the interviews conducted in order to apply mathematical concepts to a variety of situations. After the word problems are written, students will rotate around the class solving the problems written by their classmates. As a class, determine the 5 best word problems that represent your society and record them on a Google Doc to be shared with the partner class.
Introduce Yourself to the Partnering Class:
Using Skype and the Google Doc, students will share the challenging word problems created from the previous activity that incorporate geographic-specific contextual information to spur curiosity in other classroom. Each class will reflect on a difference they see in the two societies. The outcome of this lesson is to have students compare the similarities and differences in their society to the partner class. After having a brief discussion between the classes, students will have a discussion within their own class to begin a list of the similarities and differences in the two societies. The students will be developing an on-going graphic organizer comparing and contrasting the two societies.
Statistics and Society:
Students will research statistical information about the issues faced in society. Topics for students to consider:
Promoting Equality at our School Site:
Students reflect on the issues of equality between the two societies and begin to create an action plan that addresses the issue of equity in each society answering the question, “What can your school do to address issues discovered?” Students will compare data using rates, ratios, percents, and proportional relationships in order to analyze the information gathered. After data analysis, students will continue to refine their action plan with the purpose of introducing it to their partner school.
Conclusion:
As the conclusion of our project, students will be asked to complete a written reflection that addresses the following topics:
Students will be given post-it notes and asked to contribute at least one answer to the question “What Mathematics means to me and how it plays a role in my daily life?” Students may complete more than one, but record only one idea per note. As students record their ideas, all post-it’s are brought to the front of the room as a visual. Read all notes as a class and begin a discussion about how to categorize the ideas based on their similarities. Based on the discussion of ideas, students will write a reflection to summarize today’s activity.
Everyday Math in my Community:
Using previous discussions as inspiration, students will interview an adult (family member or friend) to answer the question “How do you use math in your life, job, or studies?” Their goal will be to identify specific connections between math and the adult’s life. For example, making calculations, handling money, created budgets, taking measurements, analyzing numeric data, etc. Students will participate in a mock interview with a teacher to begin to develop the questions they will ask during their personal interview. Using notes from the mock interview as a model, students will brainstorm who they will interview and the questions they will ask. Students’ homework will be to complete their interview and bring the answers to class.
Everyday Math in my Community- Part 2:
Students will work in partners to create a word problem based on the answers to the interviews conducted in order to apply mathematical concepts to a variety of situations. After the word problems are written, students will rotate around the class solving the problems written by their classmates. As a class, determine the 5 best word problems that represent your society and record them on a Google Doc to be shared with the partner class.
Introduce Yourself to the Partnering Class:
Using Skype and the Google Doc, students will share the challenging word problems created from the previous activity that incorporate geographic-specific contextual information to spur curiosity in other classroom. Each class will reflect on a difference they see in the two societies. The outcome of this lesson is to have students compare the similarities and differences in their society to the partner class. After having a brief discussion between the classes, students will have a discussion within their own class to begin a list of the similarities and differences in the two societies. The students will be developing an on-going graphic organizer comparing and contrasting the two societies.
Statistics and Society:
Students will research statistical information about the issues faced in society. Topics for students to consider:
- Population make-up (gender, nationalities, religion, age)
- Job income
- Average rainfall
- Elevation/topography
- Availability/cost of produce
Promoting Equality at our School Site:
Students reflect on the issues of equality between the two societies and begin to create an action plan that addresses the issue of equity in each society answering the question, “What can your school do to address issues discovered?” Students will compare data using rates, ratios, percents, and proportional relationships in order to analyze the information gathered. After data analysis, students will continue to refine their action plan with the purpose of introducing it to their partner school.
Conclusion:
As the conclusion of our project, students will be asked to complete a written reflection that addresses the following topics:
- What did you like the most and least about participating in this project? What would you do differently to improve the experience?
- What did you learn about other societies by participating in the project?
- How can you use your newly acquired knowledge to help you improve your own classroom and/or society? Where is math involved in this improvement?