Fun With A Name Tent

As I ask my new students to make a name tent with an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper on the first day of Summer Academy, I think, "Let's have a little competition." This wasn't in my lesson plan. Ha!

If you haven't noticed, I have become obsessed with classroom competitions. Here are two posts in case you missed them:
Fun With A Dot and A Line
Fun With A Sticky

Therefore, I'm adding today's post of Fun With A Name Tent to the "Fun With A" series. A name tent looks like this:

I use name tents for teacher trainings or on the first week of class with students so I can quickly learn their names. Right as I tell my new students to make a name tent, I announce, "Let's see who can fold their name tent into the best thirds?"

Game on!

If you have read (or remember) my two posts from above, you know this activity will go something like this:

• Students get time to create their best thirds.
• Students decide in their group (of four) who has the best name tent.
• Students vote (whole group) by eyeballing the tents and make a prioritized list. 
• Students define how we decide the best thirds.
• Students define what to measure.

Here are some whiteboard shots of my lazy writing as I quickly jot down what students say. It's fascinating.

I handed each group a name tent that was in the running for the best thirds. Some groups used inches and some groups used centimeters to measure.

I didn't care nor tell them what unit of measurement to use. I walked around and questioned which unit of measurement they were using and asked them to explain why they chose that specific unit of measurement. We later had a discussion (almost arguments) about which made more sense for this task. Most students eventually were convinced by their peers that centimeters would be more accurate here. My second class had two tents that were extremely close, but couldn't tell which was better:

We had to compare 0.5 centimeters to 0.25 inches to see who had the smallest error, Leyla or Srihitha? It was awesome! We had to decide if we wanted to convert the inches to centimeters or vice versa. You can see that Leyla won by 0.135 centimeters. DANG! Those are some good folds.

Next, I introduced them to Estimation 180 by estimating my height. They'll be keeping track of their estimates in their compositions books.

My favorite part was this exchange:

Brianna: Will you tell us your height?

Me: No.

Brianna: What?

Class (disappointed): Ohhhhh!

Brianna: That's not fair. Then why are we doing all this work?

Me: I understand. I said I'm not telling you my height.

And then BAM! I take out my measuring tape!

Me: Brianna, stand on your desk chair and you can measure how tall I am.

Brianna: Oh, cool! 

We proceed to estimate my wife's height and then we estimate the TOTAL height of the class. This was fun. I asked, "What would be useful to know and how would we go about getting it?" borrowed from Dan.

My favorite was Mansi. She suggested that we multiply the number of students (20) by 5 feet since most students were about 5 feet tall. Then we add or subtract the difference of each student's height in relationship to 5 feet. We started a Mansi column in our Google spreadsheet. This would make for a pretty cool lesson on integers.

Before we went outside, I had the students get in order from what they thought was shortest to tallest. If you keep track of the data in a spreadsheet, use the spreadsheet to verify their order: another great tool from a spreadsheet.

With this organized data, you could do a lesson on mean, median, mode, and range. Even mean absolute deviation if you're up to it. Another great part was Dylan noticing a student was absent today. "We don't know the height of the kid who isn't here today."

You could take this task and apply the mean or the mode. Have students predict the height of the absent kid. Furthermore, you could segue into probability if you like. What are the chances the absent kid is the mean height? the mode height?

How sweet of my first class, they wanted to include my height in the total height. We went outside and looked for an area long enough to fit our calculated total height of approximately 103 feet.

We went a little bit past 103 feet because some students were considerate enough to avoid placing their feet next to someone else's head. The dismissal time was rapidly approaching so I let it slide. One clap on three for Reese. She had the closest estimate of 102 feet.

One. Two. Three.

CLAP!

Thirds,
1050

Fun With A Sticky

Earlier this year, I wrote about Fun With A Dot and A Line, a Math 6 lesson I loved because it had:

• A simple question/task.
• A competition.
• Student creativity.
• Students assessing the work of each other (accountability).
• Students defining the necessary vocabulary/rules.
• Students determining the necessary tools to help solve the task. 

As my 7^th graders approached surface area, I prepared a few activities in preparation for File Cabinet. Here is one of those activities. I give you Fun With A Sticky:

Launch:

Hand each student a 3” x 3” sticky as they enter. Post the following on the board:

Explore (creativity):

A few students might do something like this.

Give the class a hint or two (if they need it):

1. This can be done with four lines.
2. Think Tic-Tac-Toe

Here's what we're going for:

If a student is still clueless, encourage them to look around and see what their classmates are doing. As the teacher, keep your eyes peeled for students who are approaching this with some creativity. Sarah and Pricila used the straightedge of their binders to draw lines. Gerardo tried folding the sticky in thirds like this.  

Student accountability:

When done, have each student write their name on the back of the sticky. Have each group of 3-4 students decide who has the best 9 squares and bring that one sticky up to the teacher. In no particular order, place them under the document camera for all students to see. Without sharing, ask each student to quietly (mentally) pick the top 2 stickies they feel have the best 9 squares. 

Vocabulary/Rules:

Ask students for input. 

Me: "Without telling me which stickies you’ve picked, how are you determining which sticky has the best 9 squares?" 

Jesus: They drew straight lines.

Carla: They are perfect squares.

Have the class define a perfect square.

Carla: Each side is the same length

I now had students take their top 2 and pick their favorite one. Somehow get your students to vote; little sheets of scratch paper, SmartBoard Responders, iPads, etc. I labeled each sticky alphabetically to avoid “this” sticky and “that” sticky. I had each student stand up. I then said, "Sit down when I say the letter of your sticky with the best 9 squares."

Necessary Tools:

They narrowed it down to about 3 stickies and gave great rules for finding the best 9 squares.

Me: What tools can I use to make it even more precise?

Student: A ruler. 

Me: Ok. What do I measure and what am I looking for on these stickies?

Here’s where you get students to discuss (or discover) how each square should have a width of 1 inch and a length of 1 inch. In other words, you’re defining a square inch with your students. Okay, there will be some "squares" that are just garbage and can be eliminated by eyeballing them. However, here's where you get to be dramatic with your students. Get them worked up. Ask them which ones you should measure. Mess with them a little and joke with them how they're unable to determine the correct "squares". Have fun with it. Either way, make sure students see the squares being measured. If I had more time, I could have redistributed the stickies and passed out rulers for the students to measure each other's "squares". You can see from this picture that the winning sticky note had a total of 3 "perfect squares."

Congratulations to my winners! They received a brand-new whiteboard marker.

Here’s the icing on the cake (and lesson design telling me something wonderful just happened):

• Itzco wanted a chance to do it again. He'd been sleepy in class all week.
• Genesis wanted a ruler if we did a second round. Let's just say her attitude toward math all week was subpar and she has difficulty being a self-starter.
• Students wanted a chance to improve and try again. Especially students who initially drew ridiculous "squares".

There it is, Fun With A Sticky. Here's that list one more time:

• A simple question/task.
• A competition.
• Student creativity.
• Students assessing the work of each other (accountability).
• Students defining the necessary vocabulary/rules.
• Students determining the necessary tools to help solve the task. 

Sticky,

846

180 Ways to Use Estimation 180

New challenge: Find 180 ways to use Estimation 180. Wait a minute. That's seems a little extreme, yet I still love the idea. Here's one use I came up with this week: inequalities.  Click on any picture to enlarge.

Me: Hey guys, here's a piece of paper. Fold it into fourths for me like this.

Me: Great. Now, who remembers how tall I am?

I know, silly question, right? If these guys don't know my height by now, I'll send them back a few grades. Then I show them this picture and ask: What's the height of Mrs. Stadel compared to Mr. Stadel?

I take about 4-6 guesses and write them on the whiteboard. It’s been awhile since we’ve done this specific estimation challenge in class. Many have forgotten my wife’s height. Great! However, it’s quite obvious her height is less than mine.

Me: Let me step back. Let’s all look at these guesses. Is it safe to say that all of your guesses put her height less than mine?

Class: Yes.

Me: Okay, so before I reveal the answer let’s put this in our notes for today.

Me: Before I reveal the answer, who can remind me why we used an open circle?

Student: Because we know her height is not the same as yours.

Reveal Mrs. Stadel's height. Wait for it... Wait for it... Here it comes... Student responses: 

“Yes, I was right!” 

“Ohh, I was close.”

“Ohh, I was off by an inch.”

Next up, our beloved Mr. Meyer.

“Woah! He’s tall!”

“Someone is actually taller than you, Mr. Stadel?”

Again, toss 4-6 guesses up on the whiteboard. Step back. What do we notice? Yes, all the guesses should be greater than my height.

Walk through the notes on this new section with more student confidence and participation.

Ask students:

• What type of circle should we use this time?
• If we’re talking about guesses that are greater than my height, how will that affect the inequality symbol?
• What are ways to remember this inequality as greater than?
• Which direction will we shade now?
• Someone give me a variable we can use for Mr. Meyer's height.

Reveal answer. Same responses as my wife, but usually a different kid was right this time.

Okay, great. Now what? What about those other two inequalities, right?

Me: Before I show you this next picture, last year the 6^th grade English teacher (@mrkubasek) at my old school read this novel with his students and came across these two books he found interesting. I found it interesting too and took a picture so we could talk about it in math.

Show picture.

Me: How many pages in the book on the LEFT?

No need to write anything down. Just get 6-8 guesses out loud. Don’t spend much time here. Reveal the answer. Give some math love [one clap on three: 1, 2, 3, CLAP!] to the closest student. Seriously, it’s pure gut instinct here people.  

NOW, show this picture and ask how many pages in the book on the RIGHT.

They don't know it yet, but you just broke their brains for a bit. Yup, you’ll get a lot of guesses below 307. But wait for it. I guarantee in a class of 35-40 students like mine, one student will say 307. If you do, treat it like every other guess you've gotten.

...and if no one guesses 307, step back after about 6-8 guesses and...

Me: You know all of your guesses make sense to me. I'm curious though guys. This is the same novel here, right? What if? I mean, WHAT IF? What if these books had the same amount of pages? Do you think that's possible? Do I have your permission to add it to your guesses?

Step back again. Look at all those beautiful guesses. 

Me: So if I'm looking at this right, you guys think the number of pages could be equal to 307, or could be less than 307? I wonder how we could represent this mathematically?

BAM! Focus here on the circle. Why are we shading it in this time? What's up with that line under the less than inequality?

Me: Okay, before I reveal the answer, someone remind me why we shaded in the circle. 

Reveal!

Brains broken! Now repair. 

Me: What's up with that? Anyone have any ideas/theories why they have the same amount of pages?

Alright. That fourth and final inequality. Here are the goods. Repeat all the other moves from above. 

Initial guess of one bar.

Take some guesses out loud. Reveal the answer.

Toss up new picture.

Write down some guesses on the board. Play up the "what if" again. Complete the notes. Ask a few questions before revealing the answer.

BAM!

That was fun. Boy, I wish it didn't have to end. But it did. Okay, let's find other ways to use Estimation 180 in the curriculum. The full lesson will soon be is available on the lessons page at Estimation 180.

180 ways,

957

Your Eyes Are Amazing

This Centrum television commercial caught my ear for a few reasons. I tracked it down on the Internet tonight and edited it for Act 1. You can find the entire lesson here at 101qs.com. It's a quick little lesson for Math 6 (6.RP.3d).

Act 1:

Question: How many football fields is 10 miles?

Act 2:
I'm not giving much information for Act 2 as I'm leaving this part of the mathematical modeling process up to the teachers and the students (mainly students). I think there's an essential part to the classroom discussion and I hint at it with the following questions (if necessary) left in the teacher notes:

• Ask students, "What information would be helpful here?"
• Ask students, "How are football fields measured and with what unit of measurement?"
• Allow your students to decide the length of a football field.

I'd like you to do the math right now. Go ahead. I'll wait. It won't take you long.

10 miles. How many football fields is that?

Act 3:

Wait!
Timeout!
Is this commercial's math wrong???

Should it be 176 football fields or 146 football fields?

What did you use as your football field length? Did you use 100 yards? Did you account for the end-zones being 10 yards each, making the total length of the football field 120 yards?

On a related note, I'm a little surprised the Centrum didn't use 100 yards so they could claim 176 football fields for a more dramatical pitch in their commercial. I also think it's fun to talk about what it would take for human eyes to actually see that candle 10 miles away. Darkety-dark-dark probably. No light pollution. No obstructions. Maybe a desert? No bright moon (which the commercial includes for some weird reason).

I'll be using this with my sixth graders this year when we get to conversions. It's a fun little task. Let me know if you have anything to add.

Candle Eyes,
1059

Wooden Balance Game Pt. I

Let's play a game! Actually, you're welcome to invite your students to join in the fun here as well. Here's what you do:

1. Watch the video below.
2. Check out the specs.
3. Submit your order.

1. Video:

2. Wooden Solids and specs:

Make estimates of the dimensions.

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

3. Submit:  goo.gl/naDhr

Good luck! I'll tally your submissions for the week and stack the top configuration.

Balance,
327

Estimation 180

Estimation initiative:

[*UPDATE: www.estimation180.com has gone live]

Last year I willingly started adding an estimation question to my daily warm-up, inspired by Steve Leinwand, Dan Meyer, and a monthly ASB gag we did a few school years back. Everyday, I greet my students at the door and hand them a 3x5 index card for their warm-up. They get the first 2-3 minutes of class to complete the warm-up exercise and estimation question. The first question reviews the previous day's skill. As for the estimation question, last year I was putting questions that were comparable to fun facts and students had no context clues for making logical estimates. It got silly. Here are some examples:

• How many miles is the California coastline?
• How long does an elephant stay pregnant?
• How many In-n-Out Burger restaurants are there?
• How many miles from the Earth to the Sun?
• etc.

Stepping back over the summer and really fine-tuning the goal of estimation (improving number sense), I began using estimation questions that were more relative and provided better context clues. Every chance I get, I use a picture or something inside my classroom that will allow students to make logical estimates. Here's today's (Day 10):

I've had to cover up the bottom half of the screen now because students come in and immediately want to go for the estimation question. They want to come up to the screen and do weird measurements, or ask me factual questions, and they flat out forget about the first question. I don't blame them. It's fun. Once we go over the first question (favorite yes/no), I usually have students give me estimates that are too low or too high and then we "go right at it." "Who thinks they got this?"

Once I get about 8-10 estimates, I reveal the answer and it's so cool to see how the students react. "Ohhhh, I was sooo close." Or "I was way off!" Either way, I ask the student or students who were close to explain their logic. It's fascinating how kids think.

For today's, I snapped a picture of a measuring cup full of almonds (my new favorite snack). Tomorrow, they'll estimate how many are in the jar from CostCo. Estimation should build. The whole first week we talked about height, based off my height. 

Day 1: What is Mr. Stadel's height? They don't need a picture for that.

Day 2: What is Mrs. Stadel's height? They needed a picture for that. 

Day 3: What is my son's height? Another picture.

Day 4: What's the height of a lamppost Mr. Stadel is standing near? etc.

The first four days used my height as a frame of reference. Check out Estimation 180 (Google doc will be replaced with estimation180.com )and you'll see what I mean. My estimation initiative is to begin documenting my 180 days of estimation, simply titled Estimation 180. Seriously, do I need one more thing on my plate right now? No. However, I do this every day and would love to share this stuff and receive feedback. Estimation is important to me. I've already seen student improvement with number sense in just 10 days of school.  

I'm starting small here, but would love to expand this idea: stay tuned. In the meantime, check out the spreadsheet catalog (tab at the top).

[UPDATE: estimation180.com is live. Forget the spreadsheet!]

Number sense,

1056

In the Name of Efficiency

See anything weird about this?

I started college as a Mechanical Engineer major since some college advisor (who knew nothing about me) thought ME (Mechanical Engineering) would be the most fitting major based on some test I completed coupled with my interest in math and science. As I was taking my prerequisite courses in math and science I switched gears to Electrical Engineering because my love for music swayed me into thinking I could design amplifiers and effects pedals (stompboxes) for musicians. I took a couple of EE classes and really didn't enjoy it. I wasn't passionate about it and saw many others in the same boat who kept making comments such as, "I have to finish this [major] now" or "I can't not major in electrical engineering" or "It's what my [insert parent gender] does." As for me, I really enjoyed my introductory Philosophy classes because they allowed me to explore some pretty radical thinkers and we had all these wonderful debates about logic, God, metaphysics, existentialism, human rights, medical rights, law, etc. I became a Philosophy major and the rest is history... I think. My point is, if anyone (me included) knew me well enough, they should have highly suggested I major in Civil Engineering.
Here's why CE:
I'm one of those people who drives by construction (road, building, bridges, pipes, etc.) and is always trying to figure out what is being built, modified, or enhanced in the name of efficiency. I'm also that person that drives by an area and will vocalize how inefficient the lane configurations are, or offramp, or stoplight sequence, etc. That's usually followed by a suggestion on how to improve it. My poor wife gets an earful at times. I'm also that guy that looks at products and either loves and respects an efficiently designed product or will completely be baffled that a company releases a product so poorly engineered and wreaking of inefficiency. Then, I spend the next 30 minutes thinking of ways to make it a better product or design while restraining myself from emailing the company. I know the latter example isn't necessarily classified as CE. However, I could see myself out there designing things to help improve civilian efficiency. Thank goodness I'm not. Instead, I'm in the classroom with normal adolescent  middle schoolers who are always are in a good mood and never have social problems or woes. Right? One can dream. I love my job. I love teaching those wonderful teenagers. There's never a dull moment with middle schoolers. As their teacher, my objective is to strengthen their young impressionable minds and help them be better critical thinkers.
Enough about me, the point of this post [In the Name of Efficiency] is I have an idea for my class this year. Dare I say 'theme'! And if it goes well, could easily become a staple for the remainder of my teaching career. That's how much I value this idea! We look for products that fit one of two categories:

1. The product is very efficiently designed. We explore everything about it that makes it a superbly designed product. What math is involved? How is math involved?
2. The product is inefficiently designed in one or more ways. Identify the area(s) of inefficiency and propose a well-thought out modification/enhancement. Again, how would math be involved? 

Here's a simple one for the first category: efficient.

A modern ketchup bottle.

The ketchup bottle that rests on its lid uses gravity to its advantage and you rarely have to shake the dang thing. Plus, your burger, dog, or fries will actually still be warm when you're done getting ketchup out of the bottle. Why did it take someone so long to think if this, right?

Here's an example that fits the second category: inefficient.

A depleted salt container.

Take that salt container at the top of this post. Granted, it took a couple of years to deplete the salt in the container, and maybe there's a new design out there, but I got to the end and there's still salt in it. No matter what angle I hold the container, or shake the cylindrical container, it won't pour out every little grain of salt. My question would be: How could we better design the spout? Should its location change? What would happen if the spout were closer to the rim? What would be the easiest, yet most effective change?

Companies do this all the time (or at least should). They reassess the efficiency of their products. Why can't a classroom full of students do the same? We/they complain about things all the time. I want my students to bring in stuff: pictures, products, construction site pictures, machines, etc. We discuss it for a week. We make a bulletin board of ideas. We split the board in half for efficient vs. inefficient. I want each student to be responsible for at least one contribution throughout the year. They do a brief write-up. Pick from a collection of modifications/enhancements submitted by their peers. Sketch or draw a new design. I'm ranting here because I want to flesh this out... I want this to work!

I want my students to bring things in that drive them bonkers. Fine, if you don't like it, think of something better. How would you design it? What would you want it to do? On the other hand, I want my kids to bring in things that they absolutely adore. Things they couldn't live without. Things that they take for granted on how awesome they are. This might require them to give it more thought. Usually something that is efficient, well-designed, well-made, and awesome can be overseen because of how great it is. The second it stops working, is gone, or replaced with an inferior product we pine. Talk about an opportunity for students to appreciate many of the wonderful, amazing, and unbelievable inventions of our time. I think this would foster a sense of gratitude for some of the cool things we experience every single day. It's not just about complaining and finding things that could be better. 

This is one thing I'll be doing differently this year. Am I off base here? This wouldn't be the foundation of my teaching, but it sure feels naturally appropriate to a math class. Aren't we teaching our kids to be better problem solvers? better critical thinkers? better contributors to society? I always tell them to better problem solvers and not better problem complainers. Don't we have things that drive us nuts? Within reason. I'm not talking about losing your internet in the middle of an airplane ride. Your life will go on without the internet for a few hours. Yes, it will! Don't even start with me. If you got a problem with losing the internet on a plane, read a book, pay attention to your kid for a few minutes, or talk to the person next to you. Everybody has a story to tell. Ask them what their story is. If you're not convinced, talk to my man Louis CK. Tell 'em CK:

Efficiently,
318

Quick note: re-focus and fun

I've think I have finally come down from the natural high of finding and incorporating Dan Meyer's 3 Act lesson format. I'm addicted and plan on using parts of my summer to compose more valuable lessons for my students. I love it! However, I love many other things in life and I feel like I might have lost focus on a few of those elements that make my life so grand. It's time to re-focus. Allocate my time better. Watch this video:

Benga-I Will Never Change, although it might appear random, sums up where I currently am. Yes, it could be edited to use as a 3Act lesson. Yes, it could be used as an estimation question for my students... yes it could be used for something mathematical. Lately, my brain has been so heavily trained and geared toward finding that math moment, math media, and math invitation that I've lost focus of some other things.

This video is just fun!

It emulates a Soundcloud wave form. It's great to see the peaks and valleys. It's great to just sit back and enjoy. I appreciate it from an artist's standpoint: the staging, the filming, the editing, the overall production time. It's just fun to watch.

As the end of the school year approaches, this is a great opportunity to allocate my time more efficiently so that I can better contribute to my family, friends, students, community, online colleagues, and world. I have met many resourceful people such as @fawnpnguyen, @nathankraft1, @wahedahbug, and many others on Twitter and have the pleasure to call you online colleagues and friends. I even look forward to meeting many of you one day. I was fortunate enough to meet Karim from Mathalicious.com while I was in DC last week with my 8th graders. He talked about his week off and shared some amazing experiences. He hadn't had a break in close to two years since starting up Mathalicious. That's incredible! He needed an opportunity to recharge his battery. I hear ya brotha!

This online community of math brains has been a blessing. I plan to contribute, share, take, and participate in a meaningful way that is both beneficial and fun. Does this sound reasonable? Am I on to something here? Am I on point?

Want another fun video... check this guy out! Diego Stocco is the man with sounds. Is there math involved? Absolutely. Is it fun? I think so.

I'm out,
1047

Be the 'student' at 101qs.com

*Disclaimer: Im not a professional cinematographer! I haven't taken any film lessons! I consider myself a novice with film editing. However, I'm passionate. I want to improve my craft with film almost as much as improving my craft of teaching!

Dan Meyer was kind enough to invite me to the beta testing of 101qs.com after seeing my Fake Money - Act 1.

I was both flattered an honored that he dug my exponential growth video and wanted to include me in the beta testing before his site went live. One of the best pieces of advice Dan gave me was, "Buy yourself a tripod for Christmas, Andrew." His feedback from Sand Vase - Act 1. I totally agreed with him and didn't wait for Santa. A tripod makes the experience much easier on the viewer. Plus, no matter how perplexing you might think your tire rolling down a hill is, you run the risk of losing your audience from a shaky camera or poor camera work. (Hits forehead with palm, D'oh)

Look, I've read many blogs and comments that challenge Dan's objective with 101qs, the perplexity rating, the lack of comments/feedback, the initial question versus the discussion, and on and on. My objective here is not to rehash any of that. Hands down! It's a solid site and beneficial to us teachers! Embrace its ingenuity! My goal is to offer some observations and advice that might contribute to making the viewing experience even better for you and your students. Here's how:

1. Have measurable acts.
2. Be the 'student' during both the staging and viewing portions.
3. Have fun!

Make sure it's measurable:
I've thrown some pics up on 101qs.com, but they were flops because it's not measurable or epic. I can discuss it with my class, but that's it. If we can't measure it, we're done. Maybe we can create a small scale project, but that could detract from the amazement of the initial media. John Golden's Largest Land Vehicle in the World pic is epic. But how do you measure it? I don't have a giant earth mutating blade in my backyard. Do you? However, one of my all-time favs is Nathan Kraft's Tuba Echo. There are definitely some measurable parts here. Plus, it's really simple!

Be the 'student':
Before pressing record or taking a plethora of pictures. Before sitting down to create, to plan, or to stage your first act, stop and think as a 'student'. Be every student you have! Be the die-hard learner. Be the mediocre student who goes with the majority. Be the smart-aleck kid who loves any opening for a joke or wise comment. Get some candles, some incense, channel them all... okay you get the point! Let the 'student' critique, trash, beat up, and make fun of your mere idea! Take the rose-colored glasses off.
This doesn't count for off-the-cusp pictures you can take with a digital camera while experiencing some majestical moment on vacation. However, be the 'student' before uploading said pictures. Would this really be something a student would be interested in, be perplexed by, have a question about, wonder about? Be honest. Your student doesn't necessarily think like you. Amazement and perplexity are two different things.
*My goal is to allow my classes to experience 101qs.com next week and see what they think. Seeing other teachers do this inspired me.

Staging:
Face it, we have a demographic. When staging your videos or pictures, keep students in mind; your students, my students, someone else's students. Sit in their desk, put their glasses on, be your demographic. Sorry John Hanks, is your Dirt really going to interest your students? Maybe yours. It wouldn't perplex mine. What might be perplexing for you or the general majority of the users of 101qs.com is not necessarily perplexing for your student. So how do you effectively stage an act? I'm going to use Chris Hunter's Big Box o' Krispies. It's my new favorite.
I think the intended question was 'how many?' Hence all the skips. Longtime users are for the most part...done with 'how many?' But c'mon, they're Rice Krispies! SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! Think outside the box here (I can't pass up a good pun!) I'm going for another audio clip here, "How loud would the Snap Crackle Pop be if they were poured into a barrel of milk?" Can you imagine that? If I had a box that big, here's how I'd stage it:
Use a tripod, put a small bowl on a table, pour some Krispies in, and then pour in some milk. Record the audio up close. Cut to a picture of a barrel, a few or many gallons of milk, and the huge box of Rice Krispies. Cut. Act 1!
Think about the sequel? If it's not loud enough, how much cereal should we add? How quickly? What type of milk will yield the loudest response? How much longer will the barrel snap crackle pop compared to the bowl? What's the perfect ratio of milk to cereal for the highest decibel? Maybe invest in a decibel meter? You can still cover your volume question and more... I love it! So what about the 101qs.com viewing experience?

Viewing:
When viewing the uploads on 101qs.com, think like a 'student'. Sometimes the expected questions are staring you in the face. I've commented to Dan that some users are abusing their power with the 'Skip' button, but I respect their autonomy. I can't force or coerce a student into what I think is perplexing so I'm not going to bash a 101qs.com user. However, I would encourage that user or student to still offer some feedback. Why is this boring? Why did you press 'skip'? I don't care if I'm on the top ten (no, that's not loser talk). I don't. I care that I hit my intended mark. I care that I get constructive feedback from a flop and improve upon it. I care that my students are perplexed.  Lastly, I believe I can offer feedback to those on 101qs.com if I pretend to be that smart-aleck kid in your class. Perplexity in math is a natural component of classroom management. If you can't engage me, the smart-aleck, I'm cracking jokes and off-task. Here's how I'd make Abbie's Oatmeal slightly more student friendly. There's too much text. Students don't want to read much or dig through text after they've become accustomed to you showing them epic pictures. Crop this picture. Zoom in on what you want the student to question. I almost skipped this, but offered Abbie some feedback because this picture has great potential.

Have fun:
If you're not having fun, your students aren't having fun. It was fun to put Post-Its on a huge File Cabinet. The students had fun making estimates. They had fun writing the numbers on the Post-Its. They had fun doing the math to figure out the actual number. They wanted to know how many Post-Its to write numbers on. I said, "You tell me." They didn't blink. They took ownership of both the writing of numbers and the math. Keep these fun moments in mind when you are channeling the student. If it's fun for them, it'll be fun for you while you plan, stage, record, and edit your media.

Have fun,
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FIle Cabinet

By far, File Cabinet has got to be my favorite 3 Act lesson to date!

I am proud of my newfound passion for 3 Act lessons and the final product for my File Cabinet lesson. However, I am even more proud of:

• My students for their interest, critical thinking, and assistance with Post-Its and filming
• My family, friends, and colleagues who took an interest in the project/lesson
• Fawn Nguyen for using the lesson, providing feedback, and sharing her dynamic results, classroom and students with us
• Dan Meyer for calling me 'Crazy Bananas.' I deserve it. I own it proudly!

Here's the story:
In previous years, a Mr. Stadel Geometry class sounded something like this during the surface area unit, "If we covered this object in wrapping paper, we'd need to figure out the total surface area of the solid so we know how much paper to use. Let's use this formula. Blah, blah, blah!"

Cue the sigh, the yawn, the head tilting back, and eyes closing. The class would use a bland formula to trudge through a static textbook question so that they could arrive at some theoretical answer that meant absolutely nothing to everyone, including me at times.

Not this year... Dan Meyer's 3 Act lesson format is here to breathe life into applied math. I was staring at this file cabinet at the back of my room, saw a stack of Post-Its on my desk and thought, how many Post-Its would it take to cover this rectangular son-of-a-prism... and so it began.

Forget wrapping paper, Post-its FTW! 

I filmed File Cabinet - Act 1 (watch video here before Act 3) last Monday, posted it to 101qs.com and every day I chipped away at sticking Post-Its for about 40-60 minutes after school. Yes, it was a lot of work, but totally worth it! This math lesson/project instantly became a huge conversation piece in my classroom. Students came in completely intrigued by what was going on in the back of my room. They stared at it. They did weird finger, arm, and eyeball measurements. They walked around it numerous times before I finally said, "Make an estimate. It's free! Write it on the board." My whiteboard at the front of the class had about 30 kids' names on it with their estimates. It was so invigorating to hear them discuss or argue their estimate. One student made an estimate within 1 Post-It of the actual result.
Going beyond estimates, students wanted to help and the only thing I felt comfortable having them do was write numbers on the Post-Its and tape down Post-Its that were sticking out.  My students were a HUGE HELP! Thanks guys! Knowing I will post my math videos online, I will not include my students in my videos for what I think are obvious reasons.

The math lesson went extremely well. My students calculated the theoretical answer for homework after we watched Act 1, made estimates, and discussed the necessary information in order to answer the question, "How many Post-Its will cover the file cabinet?" The next day we discussed the differnt ways my students calculated. NONE of them used any formula from the textbook. I love it! Students either:

1. Found the total amount of Post-Its on each face and found the total sum or 
2. Found the sum of the areas of each face and divided it by 9 square inches.

I was impressed by their ingenuity, resourcefulness, and independent thinking process. Bottom line: I didn't help. I didn't force-feed them a formula that means nothing to them. Instead, I allowed them to derive the answer. Little voice in my head says, "Derive the answer or formula on your own!" We also discussed potential problems with the theoretical answer as they walked around the cabinet. Check out Act 3 to get a 'handle' on the potential problem. Here's a hint:

Get a handle on the potential problem.

I asked my new online math teacher friend Fawn Nguyen if she had done surface area with her Geometry kiddos and I was glad to share File Cabinet - Act 1 with her. Check out Fawn Nguyen's blog here for an exciting read about how her kids responded, their inquisitiveness, ingenuity, and the depth in which Fawn took the lesson. One of my favorite parts was seeing the kids come up to her board and measuring the video display in order to make estimates. They also estimated my height while they were at it... classic! I was flattered and happy that the lesson sparked such a great interest with her and her students. They were so kind to send me a 'thank you' picture. I love it! I shared the story with my class.

Another new online math teacher friend Nathan Kraft simply said, "I'm using this."
I'm glad! I hope you do too! and send me some feedback.

I also sent out the video link to family and friends and got a healthy amount of intriguing responses. My brother, who has great insight regarding the furniture business, was able to eyeball two-thirds of the file cabinet dimensions and had a blast calculating the number of Post-Its. It was fun to go back and forth with him about this. When asking friends what their first question was after watching Act 1, one family friend shared a perspective I wouldn't have thought of in a milion years. Her husband underwent chemotherapy years back and they used Post-Its to count down the days left. They had a pack of Post-Its in the car and counted down each of the 33 days of radiation treatment. This was an extremely touching email as I learned a life-impacting fact, all because of a math video about Post-Its.

As I was busy sticking Post-Its on the cabinet all week, staging the next camera angle, stop motion setup, or editing the video, I was honored to see Dan Meyer's blog post of his weekly Five Favorites - 101Questions [4/28/12]. Yes, Dan is correct that I'm 'Crazy bananas.' I am proud of that title and fully embrace it. I also got this tweet from him:

I don't think I'll be using a Post-It for awhile... and every time I use a Post-It I will think of this math lesson. Enjoy File Cabinet - Act 3.

File Cabinet - Act 3 from Mr.Stadel on Vimeo.

If you'd like the information for Act 2, email me or post a comment. I'm working on making Act 2 files more accessible or downloadable. Until then, drop me a line!
[UPDATE] Check my 3 Act catalog for Act 2 information and more!

Best,
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