Fraction Party!

To finish our unit on fractions (and as an important segway into financial mathematics) I gave the students the STEM investigation to plan a fraction party! The students then presented their ‘party plans’ to convince their classmates why they should come to their party & what will be shared through out the day in a  PowerPoint presentation (I look forward to using these for our end of term class party/Open Day with our parents).

The students used everyday shopping catalogs (both physical and online resources) from whole food stores such as Coles & Woolworths, to further extended their understanding of how fractions are part of their daily lives, especially when we are hosting a party and have to purchase enough food items to be shared equally!

The challenge for the students was that they had to plan their party for a group of people. They were asked to include any food as long as it could be divided easily into equal parts. They were required to have at least 4 large food items like pizza, that could be cut into equal portions and 3 small food items like party pies that can be shared in equal numbers.

Students drew or cut & pasted pictures to show the food they would serve and how you would share it before creating their PowerPoint presentations to share with the class.

 

Fraction Basketball – Class Tournament

It’s no secret that our students in OAPRCS love basketball & any opportunity to tye it in with their learning really engages them.

I gave my students the simple & exciting task of playing Fraction Basketball. 

Students paired up & using scrunched up pieces of paper, plastic cups and masking tape as the free throw line, were given a series of attempts to ‘score’ against their opponent (partners).

They were then given the task of analyzing & comparing their results by adding fractions of like denominators. This was an important part of the lesson where the students communicated their understandings with each other, I overheard many of them discussing their overall score, best round & worst rounds using percentages & decimals. These concepts were recently taught through statistics & probability.

Students then analyzed their data and shaded the fractional model to represent their score. When they were asked to draw their own table to represent their fractional amounts out of 20,  my students had the opportunity to really apply their understanding of fractional numbers being equal parts of a whole. Students were explicitly taught to measure & divide this in order to make an accurate representation.

Please note- My freebies page is coming soon & will have an attached resource for fraction basketball handout. 

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, my class participated in a fun & competitive ‘Fraction Basketball Shootout Tournament’ on our school basketball courts. This was a knock-out competition at the end of each round, results were discussed and analyzed. Questions such as, “What was the fraction of shots scored for your team? What was the fraction difference between the competing teams? And how many baskets did they win by?” were continually asked.

In addition, we were even able to link some scientific inquiry skills by asking the students to hypothesis/predict the class winner, using their analysis of the tournament data so far.

Click here, to access a fantastic, easy to use & free online ‘mapping’ resource at www.mindmup.com, that helped us keep track of our tournament data.

STEAM Activity – Fraction Kites

The 5/6 students have enjoyed adding the Arts into the STEM curricula by creating their own energetic and colourful fraction kites! This hands-on activity helped engage students into a new unit of work in Math about fractions & is an awesome diagnostic tool for assessment. The students loved learning that fractions are parts of a whole amount while creating their explanation key, featured on the tail end of their kites.

Some students further extended their understandings by converting their colour-coded keys into number stories explaining them in decimals and percentages too.

“So, there are 100 squares on the grid and each fraction together has to equal the whole amount”
– Sarakia Francis
(explaining the activity to a classmate)

Statistics & Probability – Step Right Up! Probability Carnival

My 5/6 students have been given a design & engineering project in Math to create a probability game for our upcoming class Probability Carnival.

The goal presented to the students was to design a game that gives everyone equal chance to win.

The students have researched what kinds of games are played at carnivals and used their imagination to create a probability game that multiple players could enjoy playing.
One of our students even came up with a creative game to help teach us the concept of probability called ‘heads & tails’ (for instructions & rules on how to play this game, check my freebies page on the 30th of September)

To complete this activity the students have had to actively participate in the design & engineering process by defining their goals, brainstorming possible solutions, sketching blueprints and creating prototypes of their games to test and improve on their designs for our carnival.

We are all looking forward to inviting our parents and families in to join us for our in-class ‘Probability Carnival’ in the last week of school. In addition, the students have applied their understandings of probability in order to test their prototypes of their design by collect real-life data of the outcomes of their games to analyse just how ‘fair’ their game is.

The students practiced calculating the mean, median and mode of the data collected, with some students even making further numerical connections by representing the chance or likelihood of an event occurring by converting their results into fractions and percentages –what a fantastic segway into learning decimals.

Working hard on their marble maze with 3 different ‘cups’ the marble can land in. This one is left up to chance when you pick a card face down that says where your marble has to start and another card for where it will land.
A simple but effective game that ticks all the right boxes when it comes to a ‘fair’ or ‘equal’ chance game.

Desert Bear – The STEM Project

Last semester, our class participated in many STEM activities to teach us what adaptation is, how beak adaptations assist birds to survive in their environments, how the frillneck lizard has adapted to survive in forest environments as well as how the structural and behavioural adaptations of the echidna help it to survive in Australian environments.

With these understandings in mind, the students were presented with the following global problem:

 “There are currently eight species of bears that exist in the world; all of which face threats to their habitats, food supply and overall survival. Deforestation, hunting and climate change are among the main threats to their survival. If current human actions continue, bears may find themselves having to adapt to warmer climates to survive” (Science: A STEM Approach)

The students were then given the task to design and create a new species of bear that has adapted to survive in arid conditions of an Australia desert, and a diorama of its new environment. Students were then filmed explaining how their bears adaptations allowed it to survive in its new environment.

The students really enjoyed incorporating technologies, engineering and linking their understandings in math (area & perimeter) to explain their diorama structure further.

 

Biological Science – An engaging lesson on adaptations

I’d like to share one of my favourite resources & lessons in science, adapted from  RIC Publications’ Science: A STEM approach resource book pictured below. This resource book is fantastic, Australian Curriculum aligned and contains many useful resources for mainstream classrooms (easy to adapt and differentiate to suit the needs of your own students).

In this lesson, the students carried out an investigation to answer the science inquiry question: How have beak adaptations assisted birds to survive in Australian environments?  We used some everyday tools like chopsticks, scissors, straws and plastic spoons to simulate how birds use their beaks for feeding. The students then rotated through some learning stations to help them answer the investigative question ‘which ‘beak’ or tool is the most effective?’

One of our learning stations asked the students to answer the investigative question “Which ‘beak’ is most effective at digging up and eating ‘worms’?”
In this station, students dug through the soil to dig out rubber bands cut in half (worms).
The students then used the tools provided to rate which ‘beak’ was most effective.

Another learning station, asked the students to answer the investigative question “Which beak is the most effective at cracking seeds open?”
Here, the students were given a plate full of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and asked to use their ‘beaks’ to crack the seeds open.

Using their tools; scissors, chopsticks, straws and plastic spoons to simulate the bird ‘beak’ most effective at cracking open seeds.

Overall, the students learned quickly that although chopsticks are good for picking out ‘worms’ from soil and plastic spoons are better at collecting ‘fish’ from water, neither of these ‘beaks,’ are effective in cracking open seeds. Drawing a conclusion that scissor-like beaks on some birds are definitely better than long, thin straw-like beaks, which are better at drawing water and honey.

 

Design a House & Interior Floor Plan -A STEM Project.

STEM capabilities are developed when students are challenged to solve open-ended, real-world problems that engage students in the processes of STEM disciplines.

With this in mind, I assigned my students a STEM project to ‘Design a House’ with the task of designing a floor & furniture plan.
The goal for my students was to design a layout that includes at least 1 x bedroom, 1 x bathroom, 1 x kitchen & 1 x toilet (further differentiated dependent on student ability) and complete an interior design work task sheet to answer questions regarding the area and perimeter of their spaces.

Note-My support students were further provided with a scaffolded floor plan with rooms already sectioned off – This is a great idea when differentiating this project for younger learners.

I found this video featured on the ABC Education website particularly useful in prompting students to engage with an understanding of the design & engineering process. Click here to view.

The students drew what their house looked like from above (bird’s-eye view) without the roof & what it looked like from the front (front view) with the roof. Some students enjoyed seeing they someone else could build their house using their plans with MAB unit blocks.

To further extend my students I allowed them to access an easy to use Home Design Software & Interior Design Tool called Planner 5D (an online program) on class laptops to engineer their floor plan designs.

Throughout this process, my students answered many critical thinking questions related to estimating, finding area, and finding perimeter. In addition, they continually built on their Mathematical understandings of dimensions & measurement whilst further developing their skills in Technology.

This task required the students to consider engineering principles, use scaled instruments to represent their designs as annotated diagrams/plans, work collaboratively to build a three-dimensional model and use computer-aided design technology to draw their design.

*For the ‘Design My House’ resource featured in today’s post, please follow ‘The Owl Teacher’ on Teachers Pay Teachers here.

Measurement – Finding Area and Perimeter

The students have participated in a range of STE(A)M & hands-on activities to support their understandings in finding the area and perimeter in measurement.  After identifying the properties of 2D and 3D shapes, the students  were introduced to the side + side rule for calculating the perimeter and length x width rule for calculating area of 2D shapes.

The class then enjoyed applying these understandings to create fantastic pieces of artwork armed with the task of drawing their names on graph paper using block lettering & calculating their area & perimeter of their names in their artwork.
Students quickly noticed how the area and perimeter relationship depended on the design of their artwork and their name and not always what we hypothesized i.e. Why the perimeter of Sam’s name was much greater than the first four letters in Cliffords name (although he had an additional letter)

The students continued on to their STEM journey by calculating the area and perimeter of irregular shapes on the basketball courts, then being clever enough to make some (very funny) chalk outlines around each other to calculate the perimeter around their partner’s bodies.

They were ready for their STEM Project in Measurement!

What the Math? with Plicker Cards

In Maths,  my students have continued to engage in and enjoy incorporating a STEM-based approach to their learning this week.
They have begun using Plicker cards assigned to them to answer some tough questions about multiples, factors, prime and composite numbers, making Math quizzes more fun.

Plickers are a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices.  You setup your account online, create classes, create multiple choice or true false questions, print out the cards and then can use the app to scan the students answers.

This fantastic resource  will let you assign a unique card to each student.  Students hold the cards with their answer (A, B, C or D) upright at the top of the card. You can quickly assess the students by scanning their cards across the room!

For further information on how to use Plickers, please watch the tutorial below.

Please note, if you are an early childhood teacher and would like to use Plicker cards in your classroom, a great way to differentiate for your younger learners (who might find it challenging to identify between A-D letters) with a small effort, the Plickers can be altered by using coloured dots/shapes as well.

Full STEAM Ahead

Welcome to ‘The STEM Classroom’

A classroom blog that chronicles the day-to-day STEM activities/projects that have inspired curriculum learning through engaging hands-on experiences and project-based approach.

The STEM classroom has reported increased student attendance and engagement resulting in improved outcomes across the four disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics amongst year 5/6 students in a remote community school on the Dampier Peninsula coast of Western Australia.