As a school, JQUS has been working over the past two years to bring inquiry-based teaching to both our International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP) classes. The IB unit planner starts with a Statement of Inquiry (SOI) that brings together common key and related concepts to create a big idea / conceptual understanding (kind of like an essential question / enduring understanding). For example, my exponential functions unit last year was based on the SOI “Relationships show how change in population and demography connects to the impact of decision-making on humankind and the environment,” with the aim of getting students to apply exponential functions to…
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Rational Functions and Jewelry Production
Math SL is a Diploma Programme (DP) course for grades 11 and 12, yet I’m unit planning in the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) style since it’s consistent with our grades 6-10. MYP math has four criteria: A – Knowing and Understanding, B – Investigating Patterns, C – Communicating, and D – Applying Math in a Real-Life Context. I’ve been racking my brain to come up with an authentic assessment (not a test) for my Rational Functions Unit. In this unit, we are focusing on the following objectives from the IB Math SL syllabus: 2.5 The reciprocal function x → 1/x, x ≠ 0, its graph and self-inverse nature. The…
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Atlas Coffee Club and Math Projects
Disclaimer: I was sent a complimentary sample of Atlas Coffee in exchange for my thoughts on the product. I was not paid to write this post. All opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links in this post. I’ve written about coffee math before and recently got inspired again after learning about Atlas Coffee Club. After my beginning of semester poll on “what would help you do better in math?” some of the students in my math enrichment class said “real-world projects!” I love doing those anyway, so I got to thinking about topics that are relevant to them. My first period 9th grade class doesn’t seem to have…
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powerball
Powerball is all the rage right now. Despite knowing that I could have spent my $6 on something useful, I still gave in to the hype. “An Annuity Option means winners can choose to be paid in 30 graduated annuity payments made over a twenty-nine (29) year period. A Cash Option means winners can choose a one-time cash payment which will be (approximately) the cost of the annuity divided by the number of winning tickets. Note: If a winner fails to claim the jackpot and select a jackpot payment option within 60 days, the prize will be automatically paid as an annuity. All prizes must be claimed within one year…
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math in real life: blackout shades
I’m researching blackout shades for our nursery and started my design process by polling a few mom groups. One mom suggested Pottery Barn Kids. These Harper shades are lovely, on sale, and have been positively reviewed at Embrace My Space. However I realized that they wouldn’t work for our nursery upon seeing that all variations were 64″ long. Our windows are almost floor-to-ceiling. I went in to measure the window widths to see if curtains might work. A friend recommended these Koala Baby curtains, but they would be too short. These Harper curtains come in varying lengths that could potentially be tall enough. However, the smaller windows are approximately 22″ and the…