Frog Flippin' (Measures of Central Tendency)

Aren't they cute?!  I found these the other day at my local dollar store.  I plan to put them to good use this year when we come to the topic of measures of central tendency.

Last year, I did an activity I called "Frog Flippin'".  I have about 10 of the medium size version of these frogs.  I asked the students to flip and measure the frog 10 times, record the data, calculate the mean, median, and mode of their frogs distances.  I then asked them to add 30 cm to their longest jump to create an outlier.  I found, at least in my experiments, the frogs were pretty consistent jumpers and didn't naturally create an outlier, so I made one exist. The students then examined what happened to the data with the outlier in it and we discussed what happened when it was taken out.

Next year, I want to add more data for analysis, even if it will take some more time.  I am still giving  this expansion some thought and tweaking but it is pretty well organized.  To expand the project, I am going to add in additional sizes to the activity.  By posing the question: "Which size frog goes the farthest?", I am hoping to intrigue the students enough that they want to know the answer themselves.

The main idea is that students will collect data for 10 flips for each frog in small groups picked by me.  Students will then need to calculate the mean, median, and mode of the data.  I want to open a discussion about how to pick the best measure of central tendency so that each size frog is represented most positively.  Which measure of central tendency should be used?  Will their chose vary by the size of the frog?

After this, I will ask if anyone is wondering anything about their data or the measures of central tendency.  I am hoping someone will wonder if more data would change the results.  I am also hoping that if there is an outlier, someone will question that as well.  Students will then gather data from their peers and recalculate the measures of central tendency.  Students are asked to make observations about what they are noticing.  Then, we'll examine outliers and the role they play in skewing data.

The original activity and the activity that I have been developing are attached if you are interested!


Original Activity:


3 Sizes Activity:

123 Switch! (Game to Practice Adding/Subtraction Integers)

 I found another great game to practice adding and subtracting integers.  The game really forces students to be flexible in how they think of number combinations.  I know that is an area that my kiddos struggle at times and they need to be much more flexible than they are.  So, when I found 123 Switch! on Tom DeRosa's blog, I Want to Teach Forever, I was thrilled!

Tom has a hand made template that students drew in their notebooks.  I see the value in that and would prefer that, but I know my kiddos and they need a game board.  So I made a template for addition and subtraction.  I am going to print them out on some fun colored paper and then glue them back to back.  With some quick lamination, they should be ready for the next school year! 

The first thing you do is pass out 7 cards to each player.  The black cards are positive and the red are negative.  The first player puts down a true equation based on the cards in their hand.  If they can't, they need to select cards from the draw pile until they can.

The next player can change 1, 2 or 3 cards by placing a card on top of one already on the board with one from their hand.  In the picture below, I could replace the 6 of diamonds with the six of hearts.  I could replace the 9 of spades with a 7 of clubs.  Then replace the 6 of diamonds with a 4 of diamonds and still have a true statement without changing the 3.  I could also just replace all three cards.  The goal is to be the first person to get rid of all of his/her cards.

The game becomes more challenging when you have to make subtraction equations.  I like that the game is challenging and competitive enough to keep the students interest.  Not to mention, it's  a great way to practice!

Here are my templates for the game boards.  I also made a direction sheet for the students.

Product Race! (Product Rule of Expoents Game)

I wanted to practice the Product Rule of Exponents Property.  My algebra kiddos worked on this last year in pre-algebra, but I am pretty sure that they will be a bit rusty.  The game that I developed is super simple, but it reviews the property.

The game board is a basic square design and the first person to return to the start square is the winner.  The students roll a die and move the number of spaces indicated on the die.  Then, they pick a card and using the expression on the game board, multiply the two expressions together.  If the student is correct and his/her peers agree, then the student may take one extra turn.  If incorrect, another student takes their turn.

I recycled some old file folders by putting the game board into them.  It fit really well.  I then put the directions for playing the game on the front cover and snipped the corner that had the label.  The final task will be to laminate the entire folder for durability.  I am going to keep the cards separate from the boards in their own snack sized bags.  I thought about duct taping them to the back of the folder, but I thought they would stack better without the bag of cards on the back of it.

I have kept the rules pretty basic because I find that the students have great ideas for rules of games and ways to make it harder (and easier) to win.  I also had a thought to make this a team game.  Two students will work together to multiply the expressions, write down their final answer, and show it to the other team.  The other team would also work the problem and show it to the other team.  If it matched, both teams could move an extra space.  If it wasn't a match, then the team that was correct, would get to move an extra space and the incorrect team has to move back one space.  A little more competition might be helpful to keeping interest.

The game board, directions, and cards are below if anyone would like them.  I don't like that the word formatting changed all of the letters to capitals, but until I can figure out how to fix it, it will have to do.

** Update: Much thanks to Kayla who told be how to fix the letters.  It was so simple!  I should have figured it out.  Nonetheless, I appreciate the assistance!

Zero!

As my fellow Saxon Algebra I (2009) know, Lesson 5 combines absolute value and addition of integers into one lesson.  In the past, I have taught the two ideas separate from each other and practiced the skills separately.  This year, I wanted to practice the skills together and I started hunting around the internet for a possible activity that I didn't have to create.  Well, I found it!  It is a game called ZERO! and I found it on the blog, "I Speak Math" written by Julie Reulbach.

The game is basically blackjack with the goal being to get 0, not 21.  The red cards are negative and the black cards are positive.  The student with the number closest to 0 when the cards are added is the winner of the round.  Students calculate the absolute value of each of their round totals, then at the end of the game, they add up the absolute value column.  The student with the number closest to zero, is the winner of the game.  This sounds like a blast!  I think my kiddos will love it and it reinforces addition of integers and absolute value all in one game!!

There is a link above to Julie's explanation of the game at "I Speak Math".  Her direction and score sheets are there as well.  I don't subscribe to Scribd, so I recreated the direction sheet and score sheet myself.  It is basically what Julie has, but I added learning goals, supplies, an example on the score sheet, and a reminder to turn it in for credit.  It is below if you'd like it.