Thursday, May the FOURTH! (… be with you)

In class: practice applying similarity shortcuts and solving problems involving similar triangles. In 5th period we took our skills to the wilderness and measured the height of various structures near the classroom.

Assignment: 11.3 on p. 562: 1-7, 11-13 and (5th period) Measure the height of something tall using its shadow.

Tuesday, May 2

In class: students had time to work on the investigations and problems from 11.2 which deal with similarity shortcuts (AA, SSS, and SAS).

Graded work: students received their volume projects and chapter 10 test back today. The best projects consisted of

* Interesting questions

* Attention to detail

* Excellent real world interpretation and conclusions

* Original diagrams with clear labeling

* Error analysis: how far from the true answer are you? How can you determine the reasonableness of your results?

Assignment: No HW tonight. We will continue with the assignment tomorrow in class.

Monday, May 1

In class we took notes on proportions and similarity. Two shapes are similar if all their corresponding side lengths are in proportion and all their corresponding angles are congruent.

Assignment: 11.1 on p. 568: 7-15, 18-24

Heads up: We are scheduled to complete SBAC testing soon.

May 11, May 12 — SBAC Math Performance Task (PT)
May 24, May 25 — SBAC Math Computer Adaptive Test (CAT)

For the testing period students will be assign
ed a chromebook and the testing will happen in P-4 (our normal classroom in the portables). Students will need only to bring a pencil/pen. Other resources will be provided: calculators, protractors, paper, etc. Here is a link to the SBAC practice portal if you are interested.

Students should also plan to bring a quiet, non-disruptive activity with them for when they finish. No use of internet devices will be allowed during test days – so cell phones etc. will need to be off and away for the entirety of the testing session. Once testing is complete, working on a puzzle, reading an SSR book, or drawing are the main options.

Let me know if you have any questions about testing.

Thursday, APril 27

In class students turned in their volume projects and we studied how to solve proportions like

Assignment: Proportion & Reasoning, p. 560: 1-18

Tuesday, April 25

Reminder, Volume Project is due at the beginning of class on Thursday. Wednesday will be the final work time in class. I'm really excited to see the finished projects, so many interesting questions are being investigated!

For example, the two circles described on the wall of the classroom in tape represent the size of a 1cm thick dum-dum which would be needed to contain the sugar consumed and recommended for consumption by the average teenager in a year. The question is which circle is recommended and which is consumed??

Monday, April 24

In class: students received rubric and project sheet for the volume project. Project is due on Thursday at the beginning of class.  Also, students had their Chapter 10 test due this morning. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be devoted to students completing their projects.

Friday, April 21

In class Spiral Check + Chapter 10 Quiz (Criteria D). Students are allowed to bring the quiz home. Expectation is that students work by themselves to complete all problems, no sharing or cooperation allowed for the quiz. It is due at the beginning of class on Monday if not already submitted.

Thursday, April 20

Today's assignment.

1) The "Volume #1, April 26th" worksheet of challenge problems. Complete as much as you can — each problem would be considered an HP problem.

2) Complete at least 12 problems from the chapter 10 review to prepare for the volume quiz on chapter 10 which is tomorrow.

3) If you have extra time, work on the Volume project which will be due next week — TBD.

Here are most of my answers to the challenge problems worksheet

Wednesday, April 19

In class we worked on a great riddle in 5th period

(please no spoilers, answer is in the video, I just refuse to watch until I have solved it)

Also, students had a bit of time to work on a packet "Volume #1, April 26th" (excuse the date, was from last year and I didn't update). We had an unusual schedule due to the afternoon assembly.

Assignment: Complete Volume #1 and complete the calculations for your volume question by Friday.

Tuesday, April 18

In class students worked on challenge problems worksheet 10.7 and also started to research their volume question.

Assignment:

1. Collect all the data for your volume project — (internet search, estimation, actual real-world data collection)

2. 10.7 Practice Your Skills worksheet

Here are some example project ideas

* If every player every day comes home covered in little pieces of turf from the field, then how long until the turf field I play soccer on is reduced to a barren dirt field?

* If all the trees that were cut down in Oregon in 2016 were placed in a pile with a 100 ft diameter, how high would that pile reach into the sky? What would it look like if the pile were located in downtown Portland or Beaverton?

* If all the sugar that Americans will consume this year were to fill an imaginary coca-cola can with base dimensions equal to a standard coke bottle and unbounded height (so that the can would be able to contain all that sugar) — how far away from the super tall can would you be able to stand and still be able to see it given the curvature of the earth?

* If you collected all the $\dpi{300}\inline CO_2$ in the atmosphere and placed it in a ring around the earth (let earth be approximated by a sphere) at ground level — how would plant and animal life change? (also, obviously, how tall off the ground would the $\dpi{300}\inline CO_2$ ring rise)