Pi Day: Circle Hunt!

Just in time for your Pi Day celebration! I put the beginning of this activity together with a younger audience in mind (Grades 1-3) but also included some spreadsheet love for 4th and 5th graders.

When I last did this activity (in a joint operation with Lacosta way back when) it was Anthony Bizardie who made "the discovery" about the magical 3.14.

Who will your Master Conjecturer be???


Pi Day: Circle Hunt! from (Chris) on Vimeo.

Logopaths: Feed the Turtle

Years ago, my students absolutely LOVED Geo-Logo. I'll never forget the amazing and complex creations of a kid named Derek Red Feather. (Derek - where are you???)

Unfortunately, Geo-Logo was gimped in the Investigations 2nd Edition. Doug Clements (the creator of Geo-Logo AND Building Blocks) and myself had quite a session lamenting this fact at the last NCTM Conference.

Nevertheless, the Logopaths software will still provide plenty of learning opportunities for your students. Hopefully, they've already experienced this in Unit 3. If not... there's no time like the present to add this to your workshop! You can find the software on your Investigations disk, assumed to still be in your binder.


Logopaths: Feeding the Turtle from (Chris) on Vimeo.

Why Pi?

I recently attended an excellent Webinar, Slices of Pi, with Key Curriculum Press. In one of the activities, we investigated Pi in a rather unusual way: by looking at the ratio 22/7.

In honor of the upcoming Pi Day celebrations, I thought I'd share this with you and your students. Very interesting!

Pi Flower from (Chris) on Vimeo.

Angle Sums Round Two

Angle Sums Round Two from (Chris) on Vimeo.

Okay, Springcreek - ready for round two? Download the Angles and Sums sketch right here.

Angle Sums of Any Polygon

I've created a couple of very short tutorials to assist students in using Sketchpad to investigate lesson 3.2 from Stretching and Shrinking. Here is the sketch to go along with them: Download Sketch



Angle Sums - Tia's Method from (Chris) on Vimeo.



Angle Sums - Cody's Method from (Chris) on Vimeo.

Pi Day is Just aROUND the Corner!

Catch the web presentation, Slices of Pi, by Andres Marti. Slices of Pi provides you an opportunity to engage in Sketchpad activities that explore circles and use dynamic approaches to reveal the value of pi. In this webinar, you will:

• plot geometric measurements to derive the circumference-to-diameter ratio, then slice up a circle to derive the area formula

• explore simple animations that unexpectedly reveal pi

• investigate inscribed polygons, equations of circles, and the relationship between circles and ellipses.

Choose one of two offerings:

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST  
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST

Valentine's Day Quilt

Put a little heart into your lessons this Valentine's Day! There is a fun quilting activity over at the Mathwire.