We jumped forward on Estimation 180 today. I decided it wasn't a good idea to estimate the number of blow pops with grade 10 boys in the room. Instead we looked at the height of a Ferris wheel, then estimated Fawn Nguyen's height and Nathan Kraft's height. Don't tell Fawn, but one student estimated her height (without the chair) at 4'6"!
Next we did a trig example together to refresh their memories. We found a side length given an angle and another side in a right triangle. They spent the next 10-ish minutes working on similar questions.
I have a confession. I have been avoiding making students work in new groups. I think this is because I didn't want to deal with the complaining that usually accompanies changing groups. However, I created a class for them on the on-line random group maker I have used in the past and pushed the button in front of them to create pairs for today's activity. As has been the case every time I have done this before, there were no complaints (what is wrong with me? why do I worry about this stuff???). They spent the remainder of the class working on stations. Each of six stations was posted on bright paper around the room and dealt with one topic that will be part of tomorrow's task. There was one for sum of squares (Pythagorean theorem), one for similar triangles, one for finding an angle using trig, and so on. Each group had an answer sheet which they had to show me after each station they completed. A correct answer earned them a sticker (I am constantly amazed at how much work they will do for stickers). I love doing stations as it gets them up and talking about math. The questions are no different than a worksheet, but students are much, much more engaged with stations. For a while anyway. They did start copying answers off each other after a while and there was more chatting going on and less math. I started having to ask to see work... One group did get through all the stations which was great.
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