Ms. Bearse's Site

today is the day we’ve been waiting for! We are graphing the growth of our beans. While we work through how to represent our information we are confronted with a few questions and concerns. Did we measure enough? What did we measure actually? Did each group member measure things in the same way? (i.e. measure from the soil or from the table, measure to the stem, to the highest point, or to the outstretched leaf tip?). Should we have watered our plants a bit more?

Was there a better way to organize our data table? Did we collect all the needed information? Are we sure of the dates we measured the bean height?

There was a lot of scrambling to make sense of our information and put it on a scatter plot with a good legend. We needed to consider all of the days, not just the days we measured our plants. We’re going to examine and compare the growth rate of kidney beans and black eyed peas.

Some teams graphed each individual bean plant, and others averaged the growth of all kidney beans on a given day. We then had to consider what to do with beans that died. Do we include them in our average? Exclude them completely?

Some groups used colour to distinguish plants, others used symbols too. When we see black and white with no distinction, we can see an overall trend, but it might be overwhelming as well.

What started as an easy task to “make a graph” turned into a class full of reflection about what variables mean, what data is important, how to measure and decide on a common procedure in a group, the importance of collecting data frequently, and thinking early about how our data will be used in the end, so we can make a good plan.

Today was full of productive struggle!

Today we joined with another grade 9 class to do a fraction/decimal/percent activitywe were given different cards, each with a representation, and asked to notice, wonder, and decide how we might organize them.we sorted, grouped, found equivalents, and put them all on number lines in approximately the right spot (using our proportional reasoning).we needed some benchmarks between the lines, and used quarters and thirds, to make sure things lines up.

We worked well today, in a much bigger group than normal, and impressed a group of teachers who were observing as part of a PD session. Good job today grade 9s!

In grade 9 we looked at a new puzzle today. They are called solve me mobiles. We are working with logic to determine the values of each of the blocks so that the mobiles hang level.

We are calculating, guessing and checking…

Making diagrams is often helpful to model the problem

If we make an error, the mobile is not level anymore!

one key strategy we started using was to cross out elements that occur on two branches that hang level with each other. By doing so we can determine how many of one shape equal how many of another.

We are having fun (and developing our algebra skills without realizing it!)

Today in grade 10 we looked at a parabola on a graph. We graphed the standard form, and the factored form, and looked for interesting points and how the values in the equation relate to the values on the graph.

Our focus was on x and y intercepts, and the vertex.

We are working on developing new skills with algebra, and remembering how to work with fractions! We have a solid understanding of common denominators, even if they need to be big polynomials!we are able to solve for x here by gathering all terms to one side, and creating a polynomial that equals 0. We know that we can solve the quadratic here by the quadratic formula. We are never quite finished with polynomial functions….they keep showing up!

When doing an algebra quiz….algebear is a good supervisor!

Once again we were displaced due to a math contest, but we can still do lots of good quality math in the library!

We are getting much better at simplifying what look like very complex expressions.

we have been doing a lot of work on factoring and expanding….connecting trinomials to their binomial factors is a good challenge! Here we have sticks with a trinomial on one end and some factors on the other end.

Our goal is to connect all the equivalent expressions. Some went about multiplying the factors, and others factored the trinomials…

This activity has a few “tricky” (very similar) expressions, and an extra trick that one stick does not belong! This is easy for teachers to know who has just joined up all the sticks to be “done” first….or who has actually finished the activity because 9 sticks form a ring, with one left out.

Today we took a look at some EQAO questions that deal with algebra, expressions, and simplifying.

We worked up at the boards, and moved around, solving questions at each station, then checking our answers, and erasing so the next group could try.

Some of our questions were hard to do on a calculator because the numbers were so big. We used exponent laws and that helped us manage.

Our beans are starting to grow tall enough to measure them. We are tracking their growth and will make a graph comparing the growth rate of our beans.

Good luck grade 10s and 12s!