Patterning: Winter's Coming, Yeah Snow Days!

Whether you like it or not Winter is coming. Every year It comes, without fail, which is of course a predictable pattern itself. One of the most exciting events that sometimes occurs with winter snowfalls is the Snow Day. Sometimes Snow Days are called the night before. How does our Director, Mr. Milloy know when to call a Snow Day? You guessed it...patterning! If he knows how much snow will accumulate hour to hour, then he will be able to predict when it will reach an unsafe level.

Try predicting the amount of snow that will fall yourself. What strategies could you use to figure out the pattern? How could you graph the amount of snow that will fall?

If the snow is 11 cm deep at 3 p.m. and 6 cm of snow falls each hour. How deep is the snow at 7 p.m.?

It's Algebra Time

Welcome to the world of Algebra! Algebra is one of the coolest ways to solve problems both in math and in real life. For instance, if Mars is 225,000,000 KM away from earth and the Space Shuttle travels at a speed of 38,500 KM/H how long will it take to get to the Red Planet? Or if One Direction had a concert in Hamilton at 7pm on a Saturday and they were in Japan on Thursday, when would they land in Toronto? If you can figure this out right now that is awesome, if you can't I guarantee you will be able to by the end of the unit.

Parachute Fun

Felix Baumgartner recently completed the highest free fall from space. Jumping was the easy part, the hard part was creating a parchute that would slow him down enough to get him to the ground safely.

Today you are a parachute designer. You will use plastic, scissors, twine, tape and a paperclip person!
Rules:
1. String can only by 30 cm in length
2. You must make two parachutes one a square with 10cm sides the other a square with 30cm sides
3. Attach your paperclip man to the parachute
4. Stand on a chair with a spotter
5. Let the parachute drop to the floor and time it with a stopwatch

What do you notice about the flight of each parachute? Which parachute stays airbourne longest?

Problem of the Week: Fibonacci Numbers

Leonardo Fibonacci

Leonardo Fibonacci was born in Italy way back in 1170. When Fibonacci began using numbers he used numbers just like everyone else in Italy at the time: III + IV = ???. Infact he was one of the first people in Europe to say, "hey there must be an easier way!"

As a young man he helped his father, a merchant, with the family business. As a merchant, Fibonacci travelled to Africa where he learned 3+4=7. It was the first time he encountered Arabic numbers. He loved them so much that he wrote a book to tell all of the Italy about the new numerical system.

Here's one of the first patterns he came up with:

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34

Continue the pattern. What do you notice? How does it increase? Does it relate to Pascal's Triangle? Does it have a real world application?

Let the Trading Begin!

Every year on Halloween we go out looking for our favorite candy. What is your favorite candy? More importantly what is it worth to you. What would you trade in order to get your favorite? Consider this problem: If 3 lollipops count the same as 2 peanut butter cups, and you have 12 lollipops, how many peanut butter cups can you trade them for? Bonus: If someone offers you 10 peanut butter cups for 18 of your lollipops, are you getting enough candy in return for your loot? If this doesn't work for you devise your own trade using your own favorite candies. Source:http://bedtimemathproblem.org/