Middle School math teachers and students have been diving into creative and fun learning experiences and math projects this week. And while they were having fun, they learned and reviewed important math concepts in true project-based-learning style.
Mr. Delfin’s 7th Grade Math Class:
Imagine playing a board game where the goal is to collect the pieces required to build a robot so you can save your captured 7th grade teachers – and review math concepts at the same time. That’s exactly what one group of 7th graders were up to this week! Students designed board games to help them review what they’ve learned in class, an alternate (and fun) way to prepare for their cumulative assessments.
Here is just a sampling of some of the board games created:
- Sneak, Take Steal – a game where the you need to answer math questions in order to get closer to the treasure
- Strategic Stackers – similar to Jenga, stacking blocks and incorporating math concepts at the same time
- The Robotic Ranger Squad – the goal here is to collect pieces to build a robot to save the captured teachers
- Aim, Shoot, Score – a ball toss indicates which math questions to answer, and points are earned with correct answers
- Freestyle Math Olympics – choose a route down the mountain to reach the finish line first
Ms. White’s and Mr. Guter’s 8th Grade Accelerated Math Class:
Meanwhile, the 8th grade students engaged in some interactive and WET fun to explore statistics. They are currently studying how to represent data using scatter plots and lines of best fit. To solidify this concept, they’ve engaged in data collection labs this week. One experiment involved dropping water balloons, tethered to rubber bands, from a set point and recording the distance the balloon dropped with 1 rubber band, then 2, etc. Reportedly, there was only one casualty – a busted water balloon! Other experiments measured how many pennies it takes to «break» a paper bridge and a third measured how many jumping jacks a student can complete in three minutes.
Great job to all the teachers and students that made learning fun in Middle School Math this week!
