In an effort to get kids interested in learning math from the beginning of the year, we created a new problem where the kids had to deterring who the Fastest Texter in the West is. (I teach at a school named West...thus this is very clever).
First we had the kids take out their phones and see how many characters they could text in one minute. You should have seen the looks on their face when we asked them to text in class. We had them hooked at that. Then they had to plot their output on a graph and continue the graph with the assumption that they could maintain the same texting rate for up to ten minutes or whatever would fill the graph. Then there some follow up questions where they had to make a table, and equation and answer some other things.
The second day, we had any student who thought they might be the fastest submit their completed work. We copied all the tables, graphs and equations and cut them apart. Then groups were given a set and they had to match the representations. Then they had to order them from slowest to fastest textures and vote on who they thought was the fastest.
The conversations they had were great. They were able to match things pretty well. It helped that all the situations had zero for a starting point. I liked how well they worked together, especially this early in the year. It was a great way to start the discussion about constant rate and comparing rates using tables, graphs and equations.
One change I would make is next year I wouldn't have the input of 1 in the table. It made it too easy for them to match the equation to the table. I want them to have to think more in depth about rate.
And I just realized that I created the activity at work, and I'm blogging at home...I will have to link it later.
What activities have you used that are high interest and hook kids?
