Megan's Math PLP Blog

Ratio Rumble https://mathsnacks.com/ratio-rumble.html Ratio Rumble is a battle-style game where players choose a character and try to beat an opponent by creating potions made from bottles of colored liquid. Students must select the appropriate number of bottles in the right colors in the right order to make the correct potion which will inflict damage on the opponent. Standards : CA & NY 6.RP.1 Mathematical Practices : 6 – attend to precision and 7 – look for and make use of structure The first few levels could be appropriate for students as young as 3 rd grade, but after level 10 it would really only be appropriate for 5 th grade and older because it requires some knowledge of proportion, equivalence, and fractions. Challenges : ·          Maintaining the equivalence of the ratios. ·          Use the “countdown bottles” before they explode and cause damage to your character. ·  ...

Dividing Fractions Part II CA/NY.5.NF.7  This week my daughter asked for help with the following math problem: Melanie had 3 pounds of dried fruit. She packed the dried fruit into bags of ⅜ pound each. How many bags of dried fruit did she pack? Having been taught math by procedure, my first thought was 'OK, well, this is a division problem, you just divide 3 by ⅜. So that's the same as multiplying 3 by 8/3.' But my second thought was 'wait a minute. That's not teaching her anything, that's just telling her what to do to get the answer.' I knew I had to approach this in a more constructivist way. So first I drew a picture. And then I added an equation. And then we talked about how to turn the whole number "3" into something that would be easier to work with. So now we had something that looked a lot more familiar to her.   She knew that the denominator should stay the same (many thanks to her 4th grade teacher), so from there it was easy for her to ...

The reading this week, "Two Ways of Thinking about Division," helped me to understand something I had really been struggling with:  I couldn't imagine how to represent dividing fractions visually. Until I read that article, I would have only been able to describe the procedure for dividing fractions, not demonstrate where the answer came from. Even so, the description of the area model was difficult to digest. I looked at the  links that were provided at the bottom of the "Two Ways" article and  I found this method a little easier to wrap my head around:  Divide Fractions with Circle Models (visualfractions.com) .  These videos from Khan Academy were also helpful: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/cc-6th-arithmetic-operations/cc-6th-dividing-fractions/v/visually-dividing-a-fraction-by-a-whole-number    https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-fifth-grade-math/divide-fractions/imp-dividing-unit-fractions-by-whole-numbers/v/visually-dividin...

NUMBER STRINGS CA/NY Mathematics Standard 2.NBT.5 - Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.  Mathematical Practice 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; 2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively; and 7: Look for and make use of structure. I encountered number strings for the first time last week in Number Strings: Daily Computational Fluency and I wanted to play around with them and see what I could come up with. I put together the following general set of steps for developing a number string routine: Identify a strategy you want your students to practice (compensation, adding in chunks, etc.) Develop a sequence of math problems beginning with something the students can do and lead them toward a more difficult problem. The sequence should be designed to guide them toward using the target strategy, but they should not be discouraged from using ...

Finding Symmetry in Nature CA/NY Mathematics Standard 4.G.3 Recognize a line of symmetry for a two-dimensional figure as a line across the figure such that the figure can be folded along the line into matching parts. Identify line-symmetric figures and draw lines of symmetry. Mathematical Practices 5: Use appropriate tools strategically, and 7: Look for and make use of structure. My family’s moving day is fast approaching which means soon I will have to say goodbye to my garden. It is autumn and the days are getting colder, but there is still a lot to enjoy outside. I thought it would be a great idea to have students explore symmetry and get some fresh air at the same time. These images were made with an iPhone, a macro lens, and basic Windows Paint software. (And, yes, I know there are better apps out there, but I made the best of what I had!) Reflexive Symmetry (Horizontal): when an object is identical on either side of a horizontal axis. Reflexive Symmetry (Vertical): when an object...

Central Tendency: Mean, Median, and Mode  Content Standards: CA/NY.6.SP.5.A,B,C&D This week I wanted to refresh my memory about central tendency in data sets. Central tendency is a way of describing a ‘typical’ member of a set of results based on the characteristics of that member. The most common ways of describing central tendency are mean, median, and mode. Khan Academy has a great set of videos that explain these in detail, beginning with this one: Statistics intro: Mean, median, & mode (video) .  Once I was reminded of what they all mean, I wanted to develop “real life” scenarios that would get my students to explore mean, median, and mode. I found this video that gave some example problems and does a good job of explaining why you might use mean or median or mode in a given situation: (Video) Word Problems: When to Use Mean, Median, and Mode   I also wanted to find a way to get students to explore these concepts without simply giving them word problems, but ...