Comments on: A Math Problem I’d Love to See Assigned - but Probably Won’t

By: Charlie A. Roy

Charlie A. Roy — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:27:15 +0000

Hey Clay love the math problem. I will pass it on to my math department. I await their answers.

Charlie A. Roy’s last blog post..Survey Monkey a New Web Tool

By: Suzie Boss

Suzie Boss — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:09:12 +0000

Great idea for some real-world learning, Clay. (Reminds me of a project I wrote about a few years back: http://www97.intel.com/odyssey/story.aspx?storyid=337)
Exciting to imagine all the directions this could go once students become informed about the issue (by gathering their own data). Then they’re primed to become advocates for real change–at school, at home, in the larger community. Seems like the kind of learning experience they would remember.

Suzie Boss’s last blog post..What’s missing?

By: Penelope

Penelope — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:33:35 +0000

My school faced an energy audit not that long ago themselves, although economically motivated. The results have been…interesting. I’m still not clear on the part about turning off the heat at 3pm everyday and then having to reheat the building in the morning being more energy efficient. Doesn’t it take more energy to heat the building up? also, still using flourescent light bulbs.

“relied simply on sunlight from the ample windows in all buildings”

Ha. hahahaha. Most rooms don’t have windows. Those that do (like mine, finally) have one or two tiny windows. When I turn the lights off except for the window you can see enough to write if the projector is also on, but it’s pretty dark.

Anyway, it’s a good suggestion.

Penelope’s last blog post..Calvinists more likely to Cheat

By: Jim Walker

Jim Walker — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:00:46 +0000

The collaborative that I work for has an energy consultant that has energy consumption data for all the school in the area. School have been forced to make energy audits and employ energy saving measures because of economic pressure from the voters. The question I want my students to answer is how much energy would you save in your house if you switched to CF bulbs? Make it more personal. Another project I have looked into is paper/plastic bags at the store. If 100 families switched to all cloth shopping bags what would be saved in energy costs and resources. Then extend it out to 1000 families, etc. Sometimes the energy problems seems so big to a 16 year old that even if them want to do something them are over whelmed. Showing them how making a personal change can have the “butterfly effect”.

Jim Walker’s last blog post..Keeping up

By: Brian Crosby

Brian Crosby — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:02:25 +0000

Reminds me of a math problem we did a few years ago. My school was built in the early 60’s and the plumbing is a joke. So most of the water faucets in classrooms drip. The room next to mine was especially bad, so one day I put a quart container under it and timed how long it took to fill. Then in class later we figured out how much water was going down that one sink every second, minute, hour, school day (six hours), day, week, month and year. It was close to hundred per 24 hour day.
We submitted our results to our principal and the next day they came out and worked on it and slowed it way down - can’t stop the leaks completely because the problem is under the floor which is concrete slab … but I wonder if we ran around and did every sink in the school and then averaged that with all the schools in our district built in that era that are the same design (probably 10 anyhow) might be interesting info. Especially since we live in the high desert and water is a huge issue!
Brian

Brian Crosby’s last blog post..New Skype Movie

By: Jabiz Raisdana

Jabiz Raisdana — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:10:55 +0000

Have you seen this: http://www.earthhour.org/

I will also send this link to our math teachers and see what they say, although we have one teacher who is skeptical about global warming.

Jabiz Raisdana’s last blog post..Utopian Classroom

By: shinheel

shinheel — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:29:04 +0000

talking about, KIS?
We really need a change.
For our school, for the world, and for the future.
Hopefully PGC is going to make progress and become successful.

(sorry for the irrelevance :))

By: Bill Farren

Bill Farren — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:56:44 +0000

Hi Clay. This year and last I did something similar to what you proposed, working with 8th graders (links below). It was interesting to note how it took some convincing to get the math teacher I had partnered with for this project (I’m a tech facilitator) to get on board. He could see that it would be messy and that we didn’t have all the answers. Being real-world problems, that needed real-world thinking, I agreed with him, telling him (and later the students) that it would be messy at times and we were bound to make wrong turns. Luckily, I was partnered with an excellent, open-minded math teacher who eventually jumped in with two feet.

When students were first told that we, the teachers, didn’t have the answers they seemed somewhat shocked. Obviously, they are used to the teacher having “the answer”. I would tell them, “If we had the answers, we wouldn’t be asking you to do this.” Eventually they got it and began to see how unschooly and real it was.

It was also interesting to see how many of the students that consistently made honor roll, were in JNHS, and were generally considered great students, had no clue how to go about solving these problems. These were the kids that 1) cared about grades, 2) knew how to “play” the system. (Not blaming the kids; it’s the system that’s not working.) It was great to often see the kids that weren’t considered the “best” students, flourished under these real circumstances.

If you’re willing to put up with some messiness, I would highly recommend this real-world approach to learning. It’s very fulfilling for both student and teacher.

http://tiny.cc/pbl
http://tiny.cc/obb

Bill Farren’s last blog post..Study Shows ?Smartest? Schools Could be Least Happy

By: Clay Burell

Clay Burell — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:50:42 +0000

Cool, Lenva, please do.

We should talk about integrating this with Project Global Cooling in this simple way: try to spread such green schools math project/proposal methods to other math teachers at other schools around the world, and keep track of how much carbon reduction worldwide our little maths projects have resulted in the real world.

Please, please, please let this flower. Seems so easy, doesn’t it?

By: Lenva

Lenva — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:36:49 +0000

I’m willing to take up the challenge. My school will be ecstactic. We are always looking for authentic maths investigations. I will let you know the outcomes via our maths wiki when they are complete.
Thanks for the idea.

Lenva’s last blog post..Twentyfive days to make a difference