Friends and family know that I am a big fan of horseracing. Let's face it, I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and spent considerable time in my formative years at Keeneland Racecourse. The first Saturday in May is, and always will be, a holiday on my calendar.
Now that I live in Maryland, I try to incorporate the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown into my math classroom. Horseracing here is just not as prominent as it is in Kentucky, so I am on a mission to introduce a new generation to this event. This is one of my favorite units, and since I have some students three years in a row, I have to mix it up a bit each year.
Most of my unit focuses on probability. Sure, I could have the kids spinning spinners, flipping coins, or other activies (which we do also), but there's nothing like the excitement of watching a 2 minute race hoping that the name you drew out of a hat is the winner!
What is handicapping, really, but studying lists of data and making predictions on possible outcomes? The students receive a list of the horses in the race, the morning line odds, purse money won, and post position. We usually start with purse money, since students can usually see the connection, the better horse usually has won the most money. Students list the horses by purse money from greatest to least.
Next,students are given a graph or data table that shows how often, historically, a horse wins from a given post position. Using this data, student rank the horses based on their post position.
Students have often heard about odds, but sometimes they don't understand the concept. Using the morning line odds, we create a fraction, and find the percent chance that the experts think that horse has of winning. For example, 3-1 odds would mean that the horse would have 3 chances of losing for each chance of winning. The fraction would be the chances of winning divided by the total chances, which is 1/4, or 25%. Students find percentages, and then rank the horses based on odds. I also explain that morning line odds are what the experts think. I often get questions on betting, which I do answer, but point out that betting is only for adults.
After students have ranked the horses in these different ways, then they get a chance to predict the order of finish for all the horses in the race, in whichever way they choose. I usually offer $100 if anyone gets all the horses listed in the correct order of finish, which usually excites the students beyond belief! Until we do the math! (I have yet had to pay the $100, by the way).
We then work on how to calculate how many different combinations there are for the 1st place finisher, the 1st and 2nd place finishers (exacta), the first 3 places (trifecta), and for all the horses in the race.
Some other options for this unit include measuring in furlongs, rate/time/distance problems, and stride length. This year, I plan on doing stride length. Man-o-War had a stride length of 28 feet, Secretariat's stride was 24 feet. One activity is for students to measure the stride length and mark it with tape. Then students can walk the distance to find out how many strides they take to walk 28 feet. An alternative would be to measure their own stride. The Preakness is 1 3/16 of a mile, so I have students convert the distance to feet, and then determine how many strides each horse would need to complete the race. They can also do this calculation based on their stride length.
For more information on horse-related activities in the Math classroom, check out http://www.ket.org/scalecity/kentuckyhorsepark.html
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Another Grandparent's Day
I have to admit, I love grandparent's day. Yes, it's a dog and pony show, it's crowded, it's hot, and you can't really do a lesson. But for some reason, I love it.
I use this day to let the students show off their talents, and awe their grandparents. So this year, my 8th grade students were explaining our Stormwater unit. The students did an awesome job, describing the issue, our driving question, the brainstorming process, the data we have collected, and the tools we've been using. I didn't give the students a heads-up that this was happening, and their answers were very thought-out and informative.
Then came the technology demonstration. I showed the students and grandparents some presentations from high school students http://prezi.com/ov4ijwediv1e/elastic-and-inelastic-collisons-by-alex-krasne/ so that they could see an example of what their final projects might look like. I also gave a demonstration on Google Earth. The students were fully engaged, but the grandparents had mixed reactions.
I often try to imagine what people are thinking, by looking at their faces and body language. (Okay, I admit that I do this with more than people, like animals at the zoo or fish at the aquarium). I can create complete conversations in these situations that do not actually take place, and probably are very far from what is actually going on (especially with the animals!) My pretend conversations were in full force today!
There were some grandparents who I would imagine were thinking that we are comletely off our rockers. They didn't learn this way, why are we doing all of these crazy things? Seriously, bowling, car crashes, techno music? Is this what my grandchild is learning about?!
Then there were the grandparents who were in awe. They loved the creativity, the math-science connection, and technology. As many of the students do, the grandparents wanted to put in their address in Google Earth to find their house. We took a trip to the Eiffel Tower. I even had a granparent who needed directions to somewhere she was going this weekend, so we did a tour. Several asked where they could download it!
So all in all, it was another amazing grandparents day. Next year, students will be presenting their own STEM presentations. And maybe some grandparents will join in the fun!
I use this day to let the students show off their talents, and awe their grandparents. So this year, my 8th grade students were explaining our Stormwater unit. The students did an awesome job, describing the issue, our driving question, the brainstorming process, the data we have collected, and the tools we've been using. I didn't give the students a heads-up that this was happening, and their answers were very thought-out and informative.
Then came the technology demonstration. I showed the students and grandparents some presentations from high school students http://prezi.com/ov4ijwediv1e/elastic-and-inelastic-collisons-by-alex-krasne/ so that they could see an example of what their final projects might look like. I also gave a demonstration on Google Earth. The students were fully engaged, but the grandparents had mixed reactions.
I often try to imagine what people are thinking, by looking at their faces and body language. (Okay, I admit that I do this with more than people, like animals at the zoo or fish at the aquarium). I can create complete conversations in these situations that do not actually take place, and probably are very far from what is actually going on (especially with the animals!) My pretend conversations were in full force today!
There were some grandparents who I would imagine were thinking that we are comletely off our rockers. They didn't learn this way, why are we doing all of these crazy things? Seriously, bowling, car crashes, techno music? Is this what my grandchild is learning about?!
Then there were the grandparents who were in awe. They loved the creativity, the math-science connection, and technology. As many of the students do, the grandparents wanted to put in their address in Google Earth to find their house. We took a trip to the Eiffel Tower. I even had a granparent who needed directions to somewhere she was going this weekend, so we did a tour. Several asked where they could download it!
So all in all, it was another amazing grandparents day. Next year, students will be presenting their own STEM presentations. And maybe some grandparents will join in the fun!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
What I Want for Mother's Day
I want...
my boys to be healthy and happy. Of course, I want that every day, too.
my family to be near me.
good weather. We love to be outside!
my scale to have a 4 in the ten's place.
to be a good role model that what's inside, your heart and brain, is much more important than what's outside.
to tell the important people in my life what they mean to me.
my boys to be healthy and happy. Of course, I want that every day, too.
my family to be near me.
good weather. We love to be outside!
my scale to have a 4 in the ten's place.
to be a good role model that what's inside, your heart and brain, is much more important than what's outside.
to tell the important people in my life what they mean to me.
Monday, May 2, 2011
What Students Think
Why on earth am I posting on a school night?! Because today was too good not to share!
Today was the first day back to school after spring break. A day notorious for chaos, as students and teachers return to the old routines, sleep schedules, and catch up after a week and a half of relaxation. Today was no different, and we caught up with the events of the past week, nad there were many. So after some discussion of tornadoes, bin Laden, and baseball bats, it was time to get back to work.
My journey this year to include more technology resources has been interesting. I've shared many tools with students this year, from Edmodo, Google Earth, Gizmos, GoAnimate, among a few. Today, I introduced students to Quizlet. Wow...what a reception! When I first opened an example, the students were amazed. When I told them they could make their own set of "flashcards" and create review games from them, they were hooked. I heard comments like:
"This is awesome! I'm using this to study for my ... test!" (Not math, but hey, I'll share!)
"I can't wait to try this!"
"Mrs. Cluney! Where do you find all of these cool sites? I bet you sit at home at night looking stuff up on the computer!"
Okay, I have to admit, the last comment was my favorite one. First of all, most students think we live at school, so I got a chuckle out of his comment. When I answered him, the conversation got even better.
Me: Yes, ..., sometimes I do spend time looking up websites at home. But sometimes, I get them from twitter posts of other teachers. (See where this is going?)
Students: You tweet? Teachers tweet? How cool!
So yes, I was actually called "cool" by a 7th grader today. Not to bad for a math and STEM nerd. It was a good day.
Today was the first day back to school after spring break. A day notorious for chaos, as students and teachers return to the old routines, sleep schedules, and catch up after a week and a half of relaxation. Today was no different, and we caught up with the events of the past week, nad there were many. So after some discussion of tornadoes, bin Laden, and baseball bats, it was time to get back to work.
My journey this year to include more technology resources has been interesting. I've shared many tools with students this year, from Edmodo, Google Earth, Gizmos, GoAnimate, among a few. Today, I introduced students to Quizlet. Wow...what a reception! When I first opened an example, the students were amazed. When I told them they could make their own set of "flashcards" and create review games from them, they were hooked. I heard comments like:
"This is awesome! I'm using this to study for my ... test!" (Not math, but hey, I'll share!)
"I can't wait to try this!"
"Mrs. Cluney! Where do you find all of these cool sites? I bet you sit at home at night looking stuff up on the computer!"
Okay, I have to admit, the last comment was my favorite one. First of all, most students think we live at school, so I got a chuckle out of his comment. When I answered him, the conversation got even better.
Me: Yes, ..., sometimes I do spend time looking up websites at home. But sometimes, I get them from twitter posts of other teachers. (See where this is going?)
Students: You tweet? Teachers tweet? How cool!
So yes, I was actually called "cool" by a 7th grader today. Not to bad for a math and STEM nerd. It was a good day.
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