One of my grade 7 classes decide that they want to try to see how long it takes to spend a $1,000,000, if they spend $0.50 per second. This story came from "The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math"
They grabbed their markers and ran to vertical spaces as quick as possible. This question for this class of students was easy for some and hard for others. The ones that found it easy solved the question quickly with their work laid out in a step by step manner. The ones that found it hard had a tough time getting started and how to start. Once the groups finished up their problem, we had a group explain their answer and go through each step of how they got their answer. This explanation by their peers help those groups that weren't quite sure of how to solve it. After we figure out our the answer, we decided to try out the math lab and alter it a bit to be more competitive. The students had three empty cups they had to fill across the room from their starting point. They raced to the other end of the room and grabbed one linking cube and ran back and put it in one cup and continue this process for one minute. After the one minute they switched with their partner and the partner raced to fill the cup in one minute. They did this process for three cups in three minutes. Then the students had to count the total of the cubes and find the average for their group.
One students especially stands out to me when they were doing this activity, he is the one who doesn't participate a lot in class. He was very competitive with the race and even making sure everyone was playing the game properly. At the end he was the one that figure out the average for his group. This math lab helped me to figure out more of how my students learn and how I need to incorporate more games and activity into my classroom and then assess them more on that information, instead of tests, questions or assignments.
One students especially stands out to me when they were doing this activity, he is the one who doesn't participate a lot in class. He was very competitive with the race and even making sure everyone was playing the game properly. At the end he was the one that figure out the average for his group. This math lab helped me to figure out more of how my students learn and how I need to incorporate more games and activity into my classroom and then assess them more on that information, instead of tests, questions or assignments.