What makes a good invention?

The start of the quarter delivered a new group of students to Math Literacy. The Invention Design Challenge Project has been incredibly successful the last two quarters and students today were excited to be able to get the project started after what their peers have shared. Students are always the best avenue for advertisement :-) I even had a few students who already had invention ideas ready to go for today!

Today's entry event: What makes a good invention?

1. Students brainstormed five characteristics of good inventions on their own.
2. Students broke up into groups of three each with a specific role: manager, reporter, and speaker.
3. Students shared their five ideas with each other and discussed common themes.
4. Students collaborated to determine a group list of the top five characteristics of good inventions.
5. They used their new group list to evaluate a cell phone and then a magnet using a Likert scale for each characteristic. The cell phone earned mostly 4's while the magnet earned mostly 3's.
6. The discussion evolved into what makes an invention useful.

Tomorrow we'll further evaluate the concept of a "good invention" and then watch the "Smart Wheel" invention pitch from "Shark Tank."

Individual evaluation vs. overall team score

One group working to create a new top five list

Spaceport America Gift Shop Design Challenge

Students in my fourth quarter Math Literacy wrapped up the year with a bang!  Students delivered amazing presentations on their knowledge of marketing, sales, and manufacturing.  Many students expressed that they wanted to become future business leaders and entrepreneurs,  so I thought this project would be an appropriate way to encourage and strengthen their skills.

Thanks to Elias Molen at the Space Foundation for donating FREE family passes to visit the Discovery Institute this summer for the top two teams!

Spaceport America Gift Shop Presentation Rubric

Paper Airplane Design Challenge

The second project of third quarter Math Literacy was the Paper Airplane Design Challenge.  Using materials from a generic engineering design challenge, students quickly began designing their own planes or researching online for simple to challenging plane designs.  Students had to build their paper airplane within specific constraints and their designs had to perform in a distance competition.  Students had to share their design process, designs, and competition results with their peers as a culminating presentation.  Students also kept an engineering notebook to record their process.  A few students also submitted a how-to guide or video separate from their engineering notebook.

Thank you to the National Museum of World War II Aviation for donating FREE passes to the top two teams!

Paper Airplane Design Challenge 2015 Rubric
Exemplar Presentation

Dilations & Rotations

Students in a previous Math Literacy class shared how transformations (8th grade geometry standards) apply to their interests in their last project for the class. I wanted to mix things up a bit with the next group of students and received some inspiration from my mother-in-law.  She introduced me to a quilting craft video about students creating their own rotational symmetry using their name.  Attempting to reflect some letters became challenging for some students, so I also offered students the option of dilating a word, name, or image.  Students presented their creations along with a description of how their image represents transformation vocabulary as well as what their inspiration was for the choice of color, words, letters, images, etc.  I saw several of these students showcase their designs at the end-of-year learning fair :-)

Mini-Golf Hole Design Winners

After sending out a survey to parents, students, and educators the votes are in for the winners of the Mini-Golf Hole Design project in Math Literacy.  Students who won the design challenge will receive a trip to a local mini-golf place upon returning from winter break.

Thank you to Adventure Miniature Golf for donating FREE miniature golf games to the top three teams!

Want to play a round of golf?

Students in my Math Literacy class recently completed their final drafts and presentations for a mini-golf hole design.  Students were tasked with creating a design that was a composite figure with an area less than or equal to 128 square feet (accurate calculations required) as well as shots that required a challenge for the average or expert golfer.

Student Work - Winter 2014

I am continually impressed with the quality of student work in my 8th grade math classes at Challenger.  Students take pride in their work and persevere to solve challenging math tasks.