Math Is Everywhere!

In MTH1W we are working toward our exam and culminating task. Our exam will be similar to our tests, a menu of mild medium and spicy questions covering the many strands of the course. Our culminating task will be quite different from that. It is something we explored 8 years or so ago, but are going to try again, and streamline it differently this time.

To prepare for our culminating task we are practicing our skills of noticing and wondering.

Today my class looked at this image, and brainstormed the different ways that they can see math in this image, or the different math questions this image makes them wonder about. We also prompted them to think of the information that they’d need to solve the questions that they are wondering about.

It was interesting to hear the students’ ideas. Many were interested in the circumference and area of the circle. Some were curious about the proportion of the image that was green compared to red. Some were noticing angles in the circle from the people, or their shadows. Others were curious about the basketball and how to calculate things about it, or how it compared to the circle on the ground.

As we approach our culminating task we will practice the skills of asking good questions about the math that we see in various images.

Our culminating task is inspired from an OAME presentation years ago, where students are presented with an image, and they are tasked with creating good questions about the image. The questions should fit within several key strands of the curriculum. For us this year it will be measurement/geometry, numeracy, and financial math.

Day 1: Students will be in groups to examine the image, and create a mild/medium/spicy question for each of the 3 strands. They will also decide on what information they’d like to ask us for. While in groups they can brainstorm ways to solve the questions that they are creating. Groups will submit their questions, and their information request at the end of the class.

Day 2: Students will be working independently. They will receive a copy of their group’s questions, along with the answers to the information requests that they submitted. Students will choose to answer the mild/medium/spicy question for each strand, and submit their work at the end of the class.

Students will be evaluated on the depth of question that they asked as well as the answers that they determine using the provided information.

We are trying to value the group work that we do all the time in class, and the practice that we have been using frequently of “noticing” and “wondering”, and asking for more information. We hope that this culminating task will allow students to show skills that they can’t show on an exam.