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Classroom Activities

Dr. Meredith Anne S. HiggsMiddle Tennessee State University

Dr. Daryl StephensEast Tennessee State University

Majors, Jobs, Homes, and Mortgages Math for General Studies/Learning Support

Activity Synopsis: Asks student to consider majors, possible jobs, locations, and actual homes while working through a home-buying simulation.Materials Needed: handout, web access.Procedure: Students will work through a handout that simulates purchasing a home with actual homes and individualized salary information. Students present their findings on home costs and various mortgage products. Advantages: An activity that can be done in groups or as individual projects. The activity gets student thinking about realistic home purchases, budgeting, and salaries.

How Many People?Intro to Prob & Stat/Learning Support

Activity Synopsis: Construct a best-fitting line after doing a scatterplot of figures for population in Washington County, TN. (Hint: The growth from 1900-2010 has been rather linear.)Materials Needed: graph paper, a piece of uncooked spaghetti (to envision a line), and a ruler Procedure: The students will create a scatterplot, find the regression line, write its equation, interpret the slope, etc. Advantages: It may be used in the embedded learning support MATH 1530 class by leading to use of Minitab or a graphing calculator or other statistics utility to create a scatterplot, find the regression line, write its equation, interpret the slope, etc.(Gratitude is expressed for the spaghetti idea to James Spader of Austin Peay State University at a past TNADE conference.)

Minitab graph:

Drawing a Personal Emblem or SymbolPrecalc I, Math Essentials, General Studies Math/LS

Activity Synopsis: Students draw a personal emblem or symbol and label either the line segment endpoints or equations of the lines.Materials Needed: handout, markers, rulers.Procedure: Students create a personal emblem or symbol and label either the line segment endpoints or equations of the lines. Students present their finished products. Advantages: An activity that can be done in groups or as individual projects. This activity may be modified as a group or individual project. May be used as a lead-in to discuss the importance of shields and emblems in world history. A sample drawing may be given either as a starting point or as a follow-up quiz.

Activity Synopsis: Given various costs of candy bars and a set budget, students are asked to identify multiple satisfactory ways to spend the budget without “change.”Materials Needed: handout, candy if desiredProcedure: The students will create a table of multiple satisfactory ways to spend the budget without “change.” Representations may be graphed.Advantages: Students create equations of lines through experimentation.Reference: Adapted from Arthur Hyde, Katie George, Suzanne Mynard, Christina Hull, Sharon Watson, and Patrick Watson in “Creating Multiple Representations in Algebra: All Chocolate, No Change,” Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, February 2006, Volume 11, Issue 6, Pages 262-268.

“All Chocolate, No Change”Math Essentials or General Studies Math/Learning Support

US Constitution: “Drawn-out” AmendmentsMath Essentials or General Studies Math/Learning SupportActivity Synopsis: Students consider various Amendments to the U.S. Constitution to determine which Amendment took the longest to become law.Materials Needed: U.S. ConstitutionProcedure: Students consider various Amendments to the U.S. Constitution to determine which Amendment took the longest to become law. Students discover that change does not always happen overnight or even in a timely fashion.Advantages: A short activity that can be used as an attention grabber. A way to open a discussion of Constitution Day or other governmental holidays and/or James Madison. Allows students to discover that math is even involved in politics!

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References

Hyde, A., George, K., Mynard, S., Hull, C. Watson, S., & Watson, P. (2006, February). Creating multiple representations in algebra: All chocolate, no change. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 11 (6), 262-268.

Email:MA Higgs: MA.Higgs@mtsu.eduDaryl Stephens: stephen@etsu.edu Handouts are available on the conference wiki.