This afternoon, I saw an article in the LA Times talking about rainfall and how our reservoirs are filling up, our lakes are being restored, and this part especially stuck out to me:
"Lake Tahoe has risen 12 inches in just the last two weeks as the storms have dumped 33.6 billion gallons of water into the massive landmark, which measures 72 miles around and has a capacity for 37 trillion gallons of water."
First thought: Wow, that's a ton of water.
Second thought: Hmmm, I wonder if I can do something with this.
Moving over to Desmos, I put something together in Activity Builder. It took me about 45 minutes to create, most of the time being spent on how to make it work in a classroom. The hard part, though, was getting it to be an activity I was actually proud of. Like most things I create, I put it onto Twitter for feedback and got this:
Second thought: Hmmm, I wonder if I can do something with this.
Moving over to Desmos, I put something together in Activity Builder. It took me about 45 minutes to create, most of the time being spent on how to make it work in a classroom. The hard part, though, was getting it to be an activity I was actually proud of. Like most things I create, I put it onto Twitter for feedback and got this:
@Jstevens009 Looks like screen 2 & 3 are duplicates. Like the graph analysis prompt. Less sure what I'm meant to do afterwards.
— Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) January 11, 2017
While I have a ton of respect for Dan, he isn't the reason why I'm tossing this one into the recycle bin. The main reason is that he's the only one to respond and I can find a way to make it better. So yeah, I'm cutting bait and letting it go.
If you see hope in the activity, let me know. Otherwise, this is one of those blog posts where I'm sharing the mess. These things happen. If you blog, share your own messes as well; it humanizes what we do.
Also, it is worth noting how difficult it is to create engaging math tasks that involve current events. We take Mathalicious for granted, which is easy to do, but they deserve a ton of credit for the breadth and depth of work they have put together so that we, the educators, don't have to go through what I'm experiencing right now.
***UPDATE***
Chelsea nails it.
If you see hope in the activity, let me know. Otherwise, this is one of those blog posts where I'm sharing the mess. These things happen. If you blog, share your own messes as well; it humanizes what we do.
Also, it is worth noting how difficult it is to create engaging math tasks that involve current events. We take Mathalicious for granted, which is easy to do, but they deserve a ton of credit for the breadth and depth of work they have put together so that we, the educators, don't have to go through what I'm experiencing right now.
***UPDATE***
Chelsea nails it.
@Jstevens009 True words that it's ok to let genuine feedback help you let go of a risk taken, especially from someone you trust.
— Chelsea McClellan (@marvelousmcc) January 12, 2017
Happy "Mess-Repellent" Fishing
RSS Feed
