Homework

Math: A Fun After Homework Activity

All week long I’ve been asking Connor, my 9th grade son, what he has been working on in coordinate algebra.  Here’s a snippet of a recent conversation:

  • Me:  So, Connor, what have you been working on in your coordinate algebra class?
  • Connor:  We’ve been graphing.
  • Me:  Graphing what?
  • Connor:  Graphing different lines.
  • Me:  What kinds of lines are you graphing?
  • Connor:  Ummmm…
  • Me:  Are they linear functions.
  • Connor: Yeah, there are linear functions, but we also do curves…
  • Me:  Like what kind of curves?
  • Connor: Umm… exponents
  • Me:  Ok.  Anything else?
  • Connor: Umm…
  • Me:  Hey, I want to show you something. . .

Versions of this conversation happened several times this week.  Due to soccer practices, games, homework, and Life in general, we never got much past Connor’s last “Umm…”

Until yesterday!  The conversation changed a bit:

  • Connor:  We did something cool in class today.
  • Me:  Oh, yeah?  What was it?
  • Connor:  We had to build a picture using graphs of different lines.  We built a shamrock.
  • Me:  That’s what I’ve been meaning to show you all week.  Go grab my laptop.
  • Connor:  (playing game of war on an ipad) But I finished my homework.
  • Me:  Just take a look at this for a few minutes and see what you think.
  • Connor: (heavy sigh)

Enter Des-Man from Desmos.  Once he had gone through the tutorial, he was hooked. . . for a while!  He engaged in this for about 2 1/2 hours.  When he wanted to make something happen, but didn’t know how, he would come to me and ask.  We’d figure it out together.  The best part of this whole experience was when he realized he knew how to create something on his own and went to his math work from class as a reference.

Fast forward to 2 1/2 hours later, when Connor finished his Desman.

Des-man

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see the picture in detail along with the equations Connor used to create this graph, click Connor Face Graph.

It didn’t stop there.  I had some tabs open and clicked on one with the In-N-Out Burger task from Robert Kaplinsky.  He was curious enough to work through it even after all of the Des-man work.  So, I showed him more by clicking on the Open Middle tab (also from Robert Kaplinsky).  I selfishly pulled up the task that I wrote in collaboration with Graham Fletcher called The Greatest Difference of Two Rounded Numbers.  After making sense of the problem, and a lot of eye opening moments that led to phrases like “Oh, I can make it larger!” He got what he thought was the final answer and we validated his reasoning by clicking on the answer.  A slight smile!

So, we’re looking at close to 3 hours of after homework math investigation that ranged from rounding numbers to graphing equations, and solving problems.  Sounds like a great evening to me.  Great conversations and fun while learning and reinforcing mathematics understanding!  What could be better?  Talking Math With Your Kids – High School Edition.

Feed the hunger of all ages!

More with Connor:  Real Math Homework and Real Learning

Real Math Homework and Real Learning

Had a great night the other night with my (almost) 14 year old son. Connor had some math homework (Pythagorean Theorem worksheet from an outdated math series) and I was just looking over his work, making sure he understood the concept. He was coming along ok, I guess, so he finished up and sat on the couch to veg. for a bit.

Now, at first I thought what happened next was fate, but the more I think about it my subconscious probably took over. I checked my email and saw one from earlier in the week that I wanted to look at. It was from Dan Meyer’s blog and had a couple of links that I wanted to check out. After about 20 minutes of looking at some stuff I hadn’t seen before– including Estimation 180 (great site by the way), I stumbled upon Dan Meyer’s Taco Cart Problem again and began to grin.

Since I was on the couch with Connor by now, I showed him the video. When it ended abruptly, he said, “THAT’s IT!” I asked what was wrong. He said, “I want to know who gets there first.” We started to talk about it and maybe 20 minutes passed.  After realizing this was difficult to do with the limited resources we had on the couch, he asked, “Can we go sit at the table and work this out?  These numbers are too big.” I said, “SURE!” (but in a subdued voice so as not to sound “giddy” in front of my teen-aged son).

We sat there for a while talking about what he needed to know.  He knew he needed to know how far each person needed to travel, but didn’t make a connection about what he knew about the Pythagorean Theorem to solve the problem.  Yes, problem solving should be at the heart of every lesson!  He hadn’t been introduced to any ideas about distance and rate, but he knew he needed to know how fast they walked.  We talked about the relationship of distance, rate, and time and how these relationships can be use to find solutions to problems like this one.

After a little discussion and a lot of questions, Connor got to work.  He stumbled with some of the fraction “mechanics,” but with a little questioning, came through just fine.  Connor did more thinking during this task than I’ve witnessed him doing in a long time.  He was engaged from the start and he would not stop until he figured it out.  This is what students need to do all day in math class!

At the end, it was beautiful! He not only solved the problem, but when I asked where the cart should be for both people to get there at the same time, he was ready to go. He marked a new spot, and figured out the new distance. We had to set it aside, though, because it was getting late. He wants to see how close his placement of the taco cart is for the two guys to get there at the same time. We’ll be looking at it again over the weekend!

Kim, my beautiful bride, stopped at the table and asked what he was doing.  He told her, then she asked him if he finished his math extra credit (he doesn’t really need it – it’s just improving his grade, not really improving his understanding of mathematics). I found it a bit humorous because he was learning more doing this problem, than by doing the extra credit sheet of 19 naked equations.  Context and comprehension mean everything in mathematics!

Just before he went to bed, I asked him what he thought about the taco cart problem. He said he wished he got to do those kinds of problems at school instead of the “stupid problems he gets in class.”

Connor just recreated his thinking through the Taco Cart problem below using the Educreations App.  Enjoy!