Cups Challenge and Self- & Peer-Assessment

Announcements:

• Welcome Back!!!! It was a great first day back. Hope you all had a wonderful Spring Break!
• Journey 2050 Field Trip to the Agrium Building at Stampede Park to explore how to make agriculture more sustainable with a growing population is Monday, April 29th, 2019
• No School Good Friday and Easter Monday (April 19 & 22)

Math:

Today we explored a real world application of linear relations in the Stacking Cups Challenge. Students were asked to determine how many cups they would have to stack to get to Ms. Bowen's height (175cm). They were only given three cups. They were allowed to use rulers and calculators and they could also ask clarifying questions. 

Many students were able to see that the body of the cup was only part of the height once. 

They could also see that with each additional cup another rim of a cup was added. 

Some students were experimenting with repeatedly adding the rim height with one body.

The reason for coming up with an equation is that some heights are far too large to repeatedly add the rim height and then one body height. The equation allows this problem to be extended to large heights.

In the equation the body height ends up being the constant and the rim height ends up being the coefficient. 

Students were given some prompts to determine what variables were involved in this problem [number of cups (c) and height (h)] and to try to create a table of values of number of cups compared to height. They were reminded of how to interpret the input/output table to create an equation (what is the rule?). 

Although this is a difficult problem, it proved to be a good introduction to the equation solving portion of this unit. Most students were engaged in the challenge, as they could enter the task at different levels, and students could see why we solve equations for one variable or another.

Challenge Problem: "The Cup is the Y-Intercept"
After watching the video make a table, draw a graph, and determine the equation. 

Science:

Students had the opportunity to self-evaluate and peer-evaluate their Ice Box Challenge Projects. We are working on developing our ability to assess our work accurately and give and receive constructive feedback. Openness to how we can make a project better will deepen their learning. 

Throughout the next Unit, Structures and Forces, students will continue to practice self-assessment and peer-assessment of weekly building challenges in order to improve their ability to meet project guidelines and problem solve while designing projects.