Ms. Bearse's Site

Today we looked at representing exponents in a visual way.  We used a toothpick to represent x, and we built x squared by making a square with side length x.

We can represent multiple ideas using these tools.  Here are 3 x squared

If the number is in brackets and included in the base, it changes things.

Here is one square with dimensions 2x.  Inside it we can see that there are 4 x squares in the expression (2x)squared.

We were able to build x cubes too

It was harder to build bigger models like (3x)cubed because of the structural limitations.  We tried though!
We had a creative approach using plastecine that worked nicely
There are 27 little cubes in there!

Today we opened a phone hotel.  We ate these cookies and used the box to give our phones a rest.  We don’t always need technology, and it’s nice sometimes to be fully involved in what we are doing, and not distracted by intereuptions.

At the end of the class we had a look at what we missed.  Some of us had 16 notifications!  That would be a lot of distractions over the course of a 72 minute class.

We experimented in grade 9 today with bottles and the sound that they make when you blow over the opening.  This note will change with more or less liquid in the bottle.  We explored that relationship between the height of the air column and the frequency produced.
The frequency was measured with the app “sonic tools” (it’s free).
Some groups used big bottles, others used small bottles.  We did multiple trials to be sure our data was accurate.

We then plotted our data and are working on answering some questions.

In grade 10 we are working on proving concepts using analytic geometry.  We are also working on how to make a plan and solve problems.

We worked hard before the break to solve problems out loud, and take note of how our peers tackled problems, and setbacks.  This has helped us get more practice and confidence.

We are now better able to tackle problem solving independently.

It’s spring today so we are planting beans!

We designed experiments in groups and decided what variables we will change and what we will measure.  We need to keep a lot of variables constant during our experiments.  We will keep track of our observations and see how our beans sprout over the week.

We looked at he relationship between diameter and circumference todah

We made a graph showing all of our class data

We noticed it is linear, positive and shows a strong correlation.  We can use a line of best fot and interpolation and extrapolation to solve problems.

We also noticed that the rate of change is 3.14 (perfect for pi day)

We sang a pi day song (to the tune of oh christmas tree) and talked about irrational numbers.

And finally ate some pies!

We are looking at algebra in grade 9, and are using algebra tiles to help us visualize some abstract concepts.  We can add and subtract polynomials now, and model perimeter and area.

We popped corn today.  We started off by brainstorming all the things we wondered about, and all the questions we could make and solve regarding popcorn.

We measured volumes, and volume changes, we timed how long it took to pop

We made containers out of one cheed of paper and tried to maximize the volume.

We noticed that the buckets aren’t perfect cylinders, so We figured out how to approximate the volume, and then checked it using our known cylinders.

We did a lot of math and explored so many different things!  It is hard to imagine how many explorations came from a bag of popcorn.

 

How far will a ruler fall before you catch it?

We tested our reactions today as an introduction to Kinematics, our next physics unit.

We’re paper free today!