So this is my new lesson/starter activity. I plan on using this to get kids thinking about volume again, and my future goals for this lesson will be elaborated further down. Anyway this all started when I was thinking about the recent trend in twelve pack boxes for pop. They use to be 3x4 and now they are 6x2. My students had a lot of problems this year with Surface Area (mostly due to me), and I thought this would be a great way to introduce it by buying some, and asking the question, "Which box is better for the environment?" I liked the idea and, so I was stuck thinking about pop.
I went shopping with my dad last weekend (we were home for a family event) and there were these new "100 calories" Coca Cola Slim packs and I grabbed out my phone and snapped some picture (Dad looked at me funny he is not used to this side of me yet). Anyway I walked down the aisle, and found the new Pepsi slim cans! But they were a different shape, but same price! Boo ya! Math lesson here I come. Anyway I bought those as fast as I can, and this weekend I went to town. I'll present this once more in Mr. Meyer's three acts since I appreciate the narrative...
Act 1 - Any Questions?
A nice simple video, and Twitter has quickly shown (not from hundreds of people), that I was on track with my question. Students will ask questions about the video, and share them on the board. I am anticipating that students will either inquire about volume or surface area, both tracks I am willing to head down.
I love Mythbusters, I think they are fantastic. I wish I could do their job, but I get to use their stuff sometimes to do my job. I am going to adapt this eventually for grade 8 but there are so many possibilities here, and what I want to know is how you guys would do it. I will try to embed the videos from the Discovery Channel website in the order I think I would show them, but what do you guys think. This is by no means a lesson yet, but I have to get it down now before I forget, and before discovery channel removes the videos!
Video 1 (Act 1 if you will)
This is a very raw WCYDWT, but I wanted to get this up so that I could hopefully get some feedback before I teach my students! I cannot wait to have time in the summer to devote to getting these moments captured and properly prepared! It will be a good one, and you can all (I think there are two of you reading this?!) expect to have some more blogging done from moi!
Anyway here goes the What Could You Do With This-iness!
Act 1 - Questioning