Follow me
Embrace the Drawing Board
  • Blog
  • 180 Days
  • 3 Acts
  • Virtual Filing Cabinet

3 Acts - Megalodon

12/31/2011

3 Comments

 
I have a penchant for dinosaurs and monsters that roamed the Earth millions of years ago.  I still remember sitting in the theatre when I was six years old to see Jurassic Park.  I remember the first moment that I saw the Brachiosaurus in that movie and ever since I was hooked!  I have never grown out of that.  Watching Jurassic Park still makes me giggle like a school girl. When I see things like quake circles in glasses of water, and the piercing cry of the velociraptors, my heart soars!.  Suffice to say when I first learned of something called the Megalodon I was hooked.  Here are my 3 acts.

Act 1- Say "Ahhh!"

Picture
Megalodon was a shark: a really really big shark.  What is different about finding remains of a shark than say that of a Tyrannosaurus is that a shark is mostly cartilage.  That means that scientists mostly only get to find jaws and teeth.
Picture
So I want to ask students: "If you found a tooth this size, how big would the shark be?"  *Side note for extra awesome go buy a replica on ebay!* Get guesses, draw pictures! Give them a grid to show scale between you and the size of the shark, all in the name of awesome!

Guiding Questions

  • If we know this is a shark what is the next step that we should take?
  • What sharks could we compare it to?
  • Which shark looks most like Megalodon's?  Check here maybe.
  • How can we compare the sizes of these teeth?
  • How does that affect the shark's size?

Act 2 - The Scientific Process

Now experts recognized that this is a shark tooth by comparing it with one of the fiercest sharks around.  The Great White shark actually shares much the same characteristics as the Megalodon.  Hopefully students will recognize that if we have identified it as a shark tooth that we can compare it to these sharks.  This is where some comparison pictures come into play.
Picture
Picture
Students now can make some educated guesses, and we can talk about what are some good methods for estimating Megalodon's size.

Act 3 - The Reveal

Picture
Picture
The first estimations were done very simple proportional reasoning, which gives us the overestimate. At this point I might have students measure out on a string how big the Megalodon actually is!

Sequels

There are a few sequels that come to mind.
  • Given a length of a shark, draw the size of its tooth.
  • Experts thought that assuming a directly proportional relation was not accurate measurement.  Some experts (Gottfried et al.) found the following information to create a formula that predicts the size of a shark.  Use the information in this table to find the equation, and use it to make a new estimation of our Megalodon's size. 

Tooth Size (cm)Shark Length (m)
2.5 2.2
3.8 3.4
5.1 4.7
6.4 5.9

Well tell me what you think!  I am so excited about this, but will it translate?  What do ya think?
3 Comments

My First Attempt at an Applet

12/3/2011

1 Comment

 
So I love Geogebra, and I am trying to use it in class.  I haven't made specific applets before, and so this is my first time creating one for classroom use.

This year I wanted to give students a way of playing around with estimating square roots, and last year I just didn't have a method that kids could play around with, but this applet gives them more of that chance.  Tell me what you think.  Where should I go from here?


Find the applet right here.
1 Comment
    Blogroll

    dy/dan
    Overthinking My Teaching
    Fawn Ngyuen
    Mr. Vaudrey
    Divisible by Three
    Approximately Normal
    Emergent Math
    Tweet

    Categories

    All
    101qs.com
    3acts
    Algebra
    Anyqs
    #anyqs
    Assessment
    Board Games
    Calculus
    Classroom Management
    Density
    Equations
    Exponents
    Feedback
    Formative
    Geometry
    Integers
    Ka
    Language
    Lesson Ideas
    Lesson Plans
    Lesson Reflection
    Lesson Resources
    Lessons I Am Not Even Near Teaching
    Lesson Starters
    Manipulatives
    Math Lessons
    Math Talk
    Number
    Number Bases
    Numeracy
    Operations
    Pbl
    Percent
    Place Value
    Probability
    Rates
    Rates And Ratios
    Ratios
    Reflections
    Report Cards
    Sbg
    Square Roots
    Statistics
    Summer Time Reflections
    The Mind Of The Student
    There I Tried It
    Twitterverse
    Variables
    Volume
    Wcydwt
    What I Want To Remember
    What I Want To Remember Years From Now

    Archives

    September 2015
    April 2015
    August 2014
    May 2014
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.