Pumpkin Problem Solving

You all know about my fascination with pumpkins. Every weekend from September until October 31st I will be found with my two children At Howell's Pumpking Farm running in corn mazes, sitting on a hay ride and trying to trick Grace and Charlotte into going into the spook barn.

But although Howell's Pumpkin Patch is intended to be a fun family experience, it's also intended to be a money maker.

Today we started off with a problem. Owner, Jerry Howell is trying to organize his pumpkins. He has harvested 120 pumpkins total and would like them organized in rows and columns. What are the ways he can arrange these pumpkins? You can use interlocking cubes, your personal electronic devices, markers and chart paper, but you must show your thinking.

This is only the beginning, by the end of the week we will add more layers to this question. Our goal this week is to begin to create a model for the way we will solve problems in Mr. C's Math Academy!

Happy Harvesting.

Arrange these pumpkins so they will be easy to sell!

You're Out Of Order!

This week the Grade 7s are learning about Order of Operations. We have spent time asking questions such as: how come my calculator is wrong, why is BEDMAS unreliable and why does Mr. Child keep referring to brackets as the UFC fighter of the math world?

In class we begin each new topic by "Getting Started", we look at a problem and work as a team to search for solutions. Sometimes we know the answer right away, sometimes we activate our prior knowledge by thinking about past lessons, sometimes we just take a chance and try our best to come up with something to contribute.

Our next step is to discuss our findings as a class and to build our "Math Wall". It is messy and imperfect but it helps us to develop ideas as a group and build upon the thoughts of everyone in the class.

Math Wall: Building Rules for Order of Operations

Raft Rally

During the week of September 10th we had our first problem solving task in Mr. C's Math Academy. We were challenged with a learning goal: in teams, create a raft out of a 20cm x 20cm square of tin foil and four plastic straws. The only tool permitted was a pair of scissors. Students had 20 minutes to build their raft before it was launched in "Lake Child"

Each team did a great job and had fun in the process. The winning raft was able to hold 112 pennies. The prize...112 pennies! Hey Mimi I hoped you split your winnings with your teammates. Who says school doesn't pay?

The Famous "Lake Child" Brought Mysteriously By Fairies

Welcome To Mr. C's Math Academy!

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for checking out our blog. On this blog I will post information about the daily happenings at Mr. C's Math Academy located in Room 3 at Cardinal Heights Middle School. This blog is for both students and parents to get a look at what is going on.

I will be posting specifically about classes 63, 71, 72 and 73. So if you are away or need to check out what we recently covered it will all be on this blog.