Math teacher Nick Skaggs has a way of making math a good time. Today’s unit in Applications of Geometry was about finding the volume, specifically the volume of cylinders and cones. After a short lesson on the basics, students were given the task of going on a scavenger hunt and in order to move to the next location, they calculated the answer which gave the clue to go to the next location. Questions looked a bit like this: “A cone has a volume of 2,355 cubic inches and a height of ten inches. How many inches is the diameter of the cone? Next, go to the card that matches the first digit of your answer.”
Some worked alone, some in pairs, and yet others in small groups. Regardless, there was great energy and effort by everyone involved at each station.
Leanna and Addie ended a few minutes early and when asked, they said they successfully completed all the questions. Leanna likes math so much, she has statistics after the geometry class.
Statistics was equally interesting for those math enthusiasts and had some real life applications built into the lessons. Skaggs had a similar pattern for his Statistics and Probability class with a brief introduction and then let the students go about answering questions at different stations. The difference this time is the students had to determine which statement was incorrect in the series.
The lesson was about Box plots or as one camper said, “Box and Whisker.” Students were given real life number scenarios such as how many crackers were in the box each time or the length of time a small candle burns or the varying age of voters as determined by their political affiliation. They discussed the median of the numbers, the interquartile range (IQR), and looked at the meaning behind the statistical differences in two sets of numbers.
Skaggs did a tremendous job of challenging students as well as answering very thoughtful questions as they moved through the different problems. SCATS + Math = Calculated Fun!
