Category: Class Openers

After a probability quiz on Friday, students were given a problem to tackle and finish for homework. The problem, Come Fly With Me (shared below), features many overlapping events which students need to process. Ideally, the problem is best summarized using a Venn diagram, though certainly other methods can be used to reason it out.

While I find that 9th graders have generally been exposed to Venn diagrams, they also have little conceptual understanindg of how these diagrams are used to process overlapping events. To generate discussion, this photo appeared on the board as students entered:

If I buy a sandwich with bacon and sausage, where should I place my name? Should I place my name in the bacon only space, as I am getting bacon? How about sausage? And how do we feel about the placement of that mushroom circle?

Now it’s time to go over the “Come Fly With Me” problem, given below, and find out if the class absorbed anything from our brief Venn discussion.

So, did our opening discussion help students use Venn Diagrams more effectively? Results are mixed, as some groups altered their assignment based on the discussion, while others kept the numbers as they were. But hopefully a few students were reminded of the power of these organizational tools.

Isn’t it the best feeling in the world when a former student checks in to let you know about their expereinces, their adventures, and how much your class influenced their life?  Today’s opener is a Facebook post from my former AP Stats student Aneglo as he starts medical school. He shared this probability nugget from a course regarding risk calculation:

His observation regarding probability in the medical-world setting, and class advice for me,  is priceless:

Just tell them that pregnancy is basically like reaching into a bag of different colored marbles.

Message received and relayed. Thanks Angelo!

Can it really be 13 years since the Twin Towers were attacked?  I clearly recall my old classroom, where a teacher across the hall told me I needed to turn on CNN.  Now the students in front of me today have little recollection of that day: they were 1 or 2 years old.  But they are all familiar with the day’s events, and I hope today’s opener brings some math context to this awful day.

I shared my post on Meaningful Adjacencies, the method used to arrange the names on the 9/11 Memorial, both online and during a “My Favorites” session at Twitter Math Camp this summer. And I am thrilled that many contacted me this week looking for resources and information.

In the activity, students are asked to list their 5 favorite TV shows on a card, then appraoch the board. Their task is to connect with classmates, and placee their card so that people with similar interests are as close as possible to each other. After they have completed the board, I show a video which demonstrates parallels between this activity and the arrangement of names on the WTC Memorial.

One of my classes organized themselves into 3 “pods”, thinking that their interests were isolated. But by finding “Family Guy” as a shared interest, we can challenge small pods to come together and embrace similarities.

September 11 will never be an easy day, but having this activity to share with kids and think about the important task of memorializing those fallen makes it special.