New Lupe Fiasco Single

There's a new Lupe Fiasco single out. I'm not normally a fan of rap/hip-hop, but I like some of his stuff.

I have Bicycle Activity that I designed last year, and I hope to improve it this time around.

Eventually, I think it could make a great WCYDWT-style activity. I'm thinking a video that involves a penny-farthing bicycle and a mountain bike, maybe one of those classy, chopper bikes. The question that I'm shooting for is "Which bike goes the farthest in one turn of the pedals?" Obviously, this could quickly become "Which would win in a race?", "How many pedal-strokes would it take to go x distance?", or countless others.

The Context

I don't know a ton about cars or bicycles, but from what I understand the gears on a bicycle provide a good example of a simple transmission. Basically, shifting up one gear allows the bike to move farther in one turn of the pedals, which is why you want to operate in a high gear during races. This achieved through gear ratios. In the old penny-farthing bicycles, there was no transmission, so the gear ratio was 1:1, meaning that one turn of the pedal meant one revolution of the wheel. By making the front wheel really big, the rider would travel farther (equal to the circumference of the front wheel) per pedal turn. Thus less work, farther distance.

But innovations in the world of bicycling have achieved the same result, and far-surpassed the penny-farthing, using transmissions. The transmission shrinks the ratio of pedal turns to wheel revolutions by using (typically) two different gears- front and rear.

 

The Goal

Students can predict how far the bicycle will travel with one turn of the pedals using ratios, proprtions, and equation solving skills. Developing the most accurate ways to measure the diameter of the wheel and gears is an added bonus, and students should be keen to get the best measurement if they want to win the prize for most accurate prediction! Note: Award prizes at your own discretion.

Sad Note

I just typed this whole post and realized I no longer have an electronic copy of plans for the lesson =(

I will re-type them and post them soon. But for now, I leave you with this question: If I were to try and film such a bicycle escapade (and could actually get my hands on a penny-farthing bicycle), what is the best (and hopefully cheapest) way to film and edit a video? I'm talking both hardware and software. I hope to use Qik soon for filming short videos, but it is not available for my phone yet. Thoughts or suggestions?

Chocolate Milk on a Friday

Last Friday, I spoiled my kids. I'm not sure they realized that I almost abandoned the plan because they were struggling to stay focused during the last period of a Friday during a week in which they had spent at least 9 hours taking standardized tests, but I thought "eh… why not?"

Setting the Scene

Its Algebra I, I had just commuted from a very loooong day (and week) teaching at my 6-7^th grade school, and I walked into the high school carrying 2 grocery bags full of milk, Hershey's syrup*, and a 1.5 gallon Rubbermaid container. On the way in, I passed the principal (who I haven't met yet because my Algebra class was added 2 weeks into the school year) and she seemed confused. I'm not sure if it was the milk or the fact that my jacket was covering my ID badge and I look like a 16 year old up to no good. But I smiled and pretended like I was supposed to be there, and we still haven't met.

Friday's lesson was on ratios, but because I have 8^th grade advanced kids, I thought I could probably kill ratios and proportions in one day. Silly me, Trix are for kids! The ratio portion went OK, but not to where I felt like we could a.) do the unit conversions necessary for my plan, and b.) knock out proportions in the same day. So instead, while I mentally debated the benefit of ending class 20 minutes early to make chocolate milk, I realized that the 2 gallons of milk I had just bought would only go to waste, so I decided that I would not disappoint.

I busted out the milk, chocolate, and cups and laid out the ground rules. They must listen carefully to the questions I asked, and answer even more carefully if they wanted a treat. I wanted to use this experiment as a springboard for the discussion on Monday. And this was 100% an experiment. Last time I made chocolate milk, my students wouldn't drink any because I bought skim milk. Also, the ratio of chocolate to milk for glass using Nesquik is not equivalent to the ratio for a gallon.

Making Some Milk… And breaching the health code in a million ways I'm sure…

Hershey's calls for 2tbsp of syrup for 8oz of cold milk. Ok, but I want a gallon. Convert the units, and… Boom! 16oz of syrup for 1 gallon of milk. And I will say, Hershey's has got it spot on. In the words of one of my kids (on Monday) "That was the best chocolate milk I've ever had!"

 

Bonus: They knew exactly what we did on Friday afternoon and we continued right where we left off on Monday, using Dan Meyer's "How many fish are in the lake?". Everybody wins.

What Can I Do With This?

Why do I feel like my teacher training was useless?

I know it wasn't totally useless, my thoughts on teaching have changed significantly since I began the teacher ed program. But now that I am in my own room, why do I feel that I have not used a single material or even piece of paper that was ever given to me in college? I have a shelf full of binders that I have turned to many times in these first few weeks, only to walk away empty handed and frustrated.

Meanwhile, I'm stealing lesson ideas, classroom setups, organizational tools and whatever else I can grab from teachers left and right.


What gives?

And yes, that was a reference to Dan Meyer, who unknowingly inspired me to start this sad excuse for an edublog in the first place.