Rationale
Cognitive Demand
I believe this task is procedures with connections. The students are given quite a bit of scaffolding in order to make the connection between the rise in water level, number of marbles and graphing a linear function. This task could be elevated to doing mathematics if the scaffolding was taken away and the students were left with their own ways to model the relationship between marbles and the water level (see Lindsey's "spread of infection" task).
Since the target is 6-8th grade students, I feel like the scaffolding is required,
This task brings together a short fable, art, and mathematics. At a very basic level, it is relating the fable, "The Crow and The Pitcher," to the math problem of graphing a linear function from observing the relationship of water level and number of marbles. What I like about this activity is that it starts with an interesting story, and allows students some creativity in preparing their posters.
I like this task because it seems like a gentle way to get students to relate math to things that happen in real life. Although scripted, they can actually see that the water level is increasing at a constant rate.
I believe this task is procedures with connections. The students are given quite a bit of scaffolding in order to make the connection between the rise in water level, number of marbles and graphing a linear function. This task could be elevated to doing mathematics if the scaffolding was taken away and the students were left with their own ways to model the relationship between marbles and the water level (see Lindsey's "spread of infection" task).
Since the target is 6-8th grade students, I feel like the scaffolding is required,
This task brings together a short fable, art, and mathematics. At a very basic level, it is relating the fable, "The Crow and The Pitcher," to the math problem of graphing a linear function from observing the relationship of water level and number of marbles. What I like about this activity is that it starts with an interesting story, and allows students some creativity in preparing their posters.
I like this task because it seems like a gentle way to get students to relate math to things that happen in real life. Although scripted, they can actually see that the water level is increasing at a constant rate.