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Assessment Dates - Blueprints and Volume Quiz

Theme park blueprints are due on Friday, May 10. You may begin handing them in now. Please be aware that if you do not hand the work in on Friday, I will provide time at Nutrition Breaks for you to complete your work. Volume Quiz Friday. Please make sure to complete your practice work and review the videos on Volume of Rectangular Prisms and Volume of Triangular Prisms

Surface Area

Volume of a Triangular Prism

Volume of a Rectangular Prism

Minecraft for Learning?

Check out Brandon B's Minecraft blueprint

Throughout our Imageneering project we have used a variety of strategies to help our theme park designs come to life. Now you will use an application to create an attraction that will give you multiple views. As seen in the Expedition Everest documentary, once artistic drawings and blueprints are finished the Imageneering team moves to a computer application to create more details.

Today you will be using Minecraft as your computer application for the design of your theme park. Most of you are familiar with the game of Minecraft, but today you are not using it as a game, you are using it as a learning tool to add another element to your theme parks.

Learning Goal: Use the application, Minecraft to create a 3-D prism design of your theme park.

Success Criteria: I can...

• use Minecraft to create cubic prisms
• work collaboratively with a friend to create a theme park design
• use the application for learning purposes
• use the application appropriately, by using a recognizable user name, creating an invisible world so that others may not alter your work and by not destroying other peoples work
• create a screen shot so you can share your design

Have fun and enjoy your designing, you are truly on the path to becoming great Imagineers!

Geometry - Assessing Your Blueprints

Today's Learning Goal...

Assess you and your friend's blueprint using the Success Criteria checklist and 'How to hack a level four,' found in April, 24, 2013 post. You must be able to use the blog to go back to our learning goals, success criteria and exemplars.

How to use success criteria when assessing yourself

1. Go over your own work first. Check all of the Success Criteria that you have completed so far, circle the Criteria that you still need to complete.

2. Provide feedback to yourself. Use the 'How to hack a level four' criteria to identify at least two things you are going to do to improve your work. Perhaps most importantly, identify at least two things you've done really well.

3. Be honest...if you have a few 90 degree angles ask yourself if you could change them somehow.

4. Be Kind...just because you haven't reached all of your Success Criteria, it doesn't mean you haven't worked hard

5. When you are finished hand your work to a friend.

How to use Success Criteria when assessing a friend

1. Do not look at what your friend wrote yet. Check off all of the Success Criteria that has been completed by your friend and circle the ones that need to be completed. You are going to have to use a protractor and a ruler to make sure everything is accurate.

2. Provide feed back to your friend. 'Use the 'How to hack a level four' criteria to identify two things your friend could do and identify two things your friend has done really well. Everyone wants to know something positive about their work

3. Be honest... if you see a few things that don't meet the Criteria it's better for your friend to know now then 10 minutes before handing in the final product. Being a good friend means being honest about work

4. Be kind...it's not easy for someone to hear about things that need to be improved. When you give feedback be nice about it.

Remember this...when Walt Disney began production of Walt Disney World he intended for it to never be finished. He vowed to always keep being innovative and to improve things in the Park. Always strive to improve your projects.

Now get back to it and continue to create. Next Week I will be using the Success Criteria to assess your work!

Drawing Prisms

Here is a couple of nice examples of how to transfer knowledge from the text to your own work, using isometric paper. Remember it is very important to use a ruler to create straight lines and to connect the vertices precisely.

Geometry Blueprint Hack - How To Get A Level 4

Your blueprints are amazing. So far most of us have used the success criteria well and have reached our learning goal, but you may be interested in learning how to go above the standard and achieve a higher mark on your blueprint design.

Bump It Up! Level 4 Hack List
To achieve a level 4 or higher I will...

• Use and have all of the elements found in the Level 3 Success Criteria Checklist 
• Label and Name Park Attractions
• Add Artistic Details and use my knowledge of prisms in some designs
• Use different pathways for people to move throughout the park - trains, boats, gondolas
• Include more than three different types of attractions - rides, restaurants, hotels
• Ensure that angles and shapes are congruent where appropriate 
• Add colour to highlight paths and attractions

Becoming a Disney Imagineer

Walt Disney Flies Over The Disney Site Before Construction

Cinderella's Castle Under Construction

Disney Opening Day 1971

If you've ever been to Walt Disney World no doubt you have been amazed by the thrill rides, shows and the beautiful landscape. Even if you haven't been to the Park in Florida, you have most likely heard about the spectacle that is Walt Disney World.

Disney World was opened way back in 1971. To the amazement of people all over the world Disney World was created on swamp-land and transformed into a magical theme park. The transformation wasn't easy. Walt Disney employed a group of very skilled mathematicians, archetects, engineers, artists and construction workers to make his vision a reality.

In class we are going to turn math into reality by designing our very own theme parks. How is it possible to take our learning goal of measuring and constructing lines, angles and shapes and transform our understanding into a unique theme park?

Initial Theme Park Blue Prints

These are some great first examples. Check and see if they fit the learning goal and success criteria from the last blog post. Pay close attention to the the positives of each and check off the success criteria that have already completed.

Geometry - Theme Park Design

Spoke-Hub Pathway Design

Math is always about turning abstract numbers, equations and measurements into something real and useful. One of the best examples of math being put to the creative test is Walt Disney World, where creative math is used everyday.

In order to put our knowledge of geometry into practice, we are going to begin the construction of our very own theme parks. Today you will begin creating a blue-print for the design of your first three attractions. To begin take a look at the Walt Disney World artistic blue-print for the Magic Kingdom. Its design is based on the spoke-hub design where all paths to attractions radiate out form Cinderella's Castle. In order to keep traffic flowing there are very little dead-ends and 90 degree angle paths in the Park.

 In your own blue-prints feel free to borrow some ideas from Walt Disney World (almost all theme parks do), but add your own original ideas as well. On grid paper you must connect your attractions with intersecting paths so that people can get to your attractions without any dead-ends. None of the paths can be 90 degrees. Construct three attractions to resemble three different polygons.

Learning Goal: Apply your understanding of measuring and constructing lines, angles and shapes to create a theme park blue print.

To be successful at this task I can...

• Use 0.5 cm grid paper or 1 cm grid paper to as the first draft of my Theme Park
• Review the Magic Kingdom map and use the spoke-hub design in my blue-print
• Use a protractor to measure, construct and identify all angles and shapes
• Use a ruler to measure and identify lengths of all lines
• Use no 90 degree angles, curves or circles
• Use benchmark of acute, obtuse, right and straight to ensure the accuracy of my measurements
• Review my previous work and the exemplars on the blog to see how to bump up my work

Geometry - Week of April 15 - 19

This week in Geometry we will continue to look at Lines, Angles and Shapes.

By the end of the week you will be able to say... I am able to construct lines, angles and triangles! To achieve this goal I can...

• use the benchmarks - acute, obtuse, right and straight angles to estimate and determine an angle 
• use a protractor to measure and construct angles from 0 degrees to 180 degrees.
• use my favorite geometry app to construct lines angles and triangles

We will be having a short quiz on Wednesday to see if we are reaching our goals!

Quiz Tomorrow

Hey friends you have all been working very hard. Let's find out what we have learned over the last two weeks!

Grade 6 - your quiz will be on...

Converting fractions, decimals and percent

Grade 7 - your quiz will be on...

Adding and Subtracting fractions with like, unlike denominators,
Converting Mixed and Improper fractions

Quiz Tomorrow!

Remember to study for your fractions quiz tomorrow! Review representing, comparing and ordering fractions.

Can Chess Help Me Become Better At Math?

In class we have been playing a lot of chess. Anytime we are finished our work for the day, away go the pencils and note books and out come the checkered boards. At first, many of you didn't know how to play chess at all, but very quickly you have learned the moves and the strategy behind the game.

Have you every asked the question, what does chess have to do with math? Just like Math, chess requires the ability to problem solve. In Math you learn formulas and steps, in chess you learn the moves of each piece - these things do not change and are constant; however, even though we may memorize our formulas or chess moves, outcomes are always changing and our brains have to adapt to a real-life math problem you've never encountered before or a chess move you have never seen.

What do you think of Chess, do you think it will help you with your Math skills? Parents, here is a link to a great article about the benefits of chess for students.

Welcome to Fractions!

Welcome to the beginning of our Fractions Unit. Over the next 6 weeks we will be taking a look at how to represent, compare and how to add, subtract and multiple fractions. Check out the pencast for a quick introduction.

Mr. C Pencast
This pencast is flash enabled and will not work on iphones or ipads Livescribe

Math Quiz Coming Up!

There will be a Math quiz for both grade 6 and 7 on Wednesday, January 23, 2013.

Grade 6 your quiz will be on mean, median and mode.

Grade 7 your quiz will be on the measure of area for parallelograms, triangles and irregular figures.

JUMP Math

A number of parents and students have asked how they can supplement the math curriculum at home. I think at the present moment one of the best individualized math programs going is a program called JUMP math. I had the opportunity of working with its creator, John Mighton, when we piloted the program for the Toronto District School Board at Carleton Village Public School a number of years ago. The manuals are around ten dollars each and can be ordered through the web site: http://jumpmath.org
When choosing a starting point I always start a grade below with my own children as a review of previous material. The great thing about JUMP math is that there are books for grades 1-8, so you can fill in the gaps at any level,you may even choose to get a head start at the grade 8 level. If you have any questions please leave a comment at the bottom of the post.