Tag: functions

Temperature is Cool

How do the functions for converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit work? Temperature talk during the coldest week of 2019 thus far.

At our evening CAMI meeting earlier this month, Kevin Winkler from CUNY Start led us in an exploration of the conversion between Celsius and Fahrenheit based on something strange he noticed while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.

I wanted to bring that idea to the afternoon CAMI meeting, and also try to scaffold the exploration a bit, so that we could extend the invitation to our students. It also just happened to be the week where the Midwest was experiencing such cold weather that friends in Minnesota kept making the same joke over and over again about the temperatures there being colder than they were in Antarctica.

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CAMI Roadshow: COABE 2016

Facilitating a meeting in Dallas, while live-tweeting with teachers in NYC, we explored a visual pattern to model what our teachers’ circle is all about.

This CAMI Roadshow involved about 35 teachers in a ballroom at the Sheraton at the 2016 COABE conference and 3 additional teachers who were back in NYC, participating through Twitter.

We wanted to maximize teachers’ time working on the problem but we also wanted to convey some important norms about how we run CAMI meetings, so we began with an ice breaker. The instructions were simple. First, everyone sat down (including the facilitators). After that, the only goal was that there be 5 people standing and the only rule was we had to do it without talking. Continue reading “CAMI Roadshow: COABE 2016”

Keep it in the Family (with Pythagorean Triples)

Many of us are familiar with the 3, 4, 5 right triangle, and maybe the 5, 12, 13. Do you know any others? Is there a pattern to these triples?

As we came in the room, Eric asked us to place a post-it with our name on a voting spectrum he’d drawn on the board, ranging from “Never” to “This morning” under the statement, “The last time I thought about multiplication”.

As we settled in, Eric shared his goals for the meeting. He’s been working on a lesson for students combining some work he’s been doing on area models with a problem that has been consuming him for weeks. Continue reading “Keep it in the Family (with Pythagorean Triples)”

Three-Act Math: Pyramid of Pennies

We talked about problem-posing and inspiring student curiosity in math as we tried out a three-act math task created by Dan Meyer

To start off the meeting, in pairs we discussed – “Real life math”: What does it mean to you? In your classrooms?

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