Good morning passengers, this is your captain speaking. While we are waiting for take off, please place all your belongs either below your seat or to the sides of the room. Please keep your chair in an upright position with all four on the floor. In case of an emergency please be silent and wait for your captain or crew's announcement, we will count down from 5 for silence. We will be traveling some miles on this journey and it's bound to be an adventure.
Ready for take off...
Today was the launch of "Learning About the World through Word Problems" and it was exciting.
So how did we do it?
"Oh My! It's like I am IN Jakarta!"
I started the class by having the boys look at the tags of their clothes to determine where they would do their initial investigations. Giving this instruction to 10 year old boys means absolute chaos to determine their location. Shirts are off, buddies are checking the tags of shorts for each other, shoes are being flung around the room, excitement in the air.
Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico, Egypt, Vietnam, India, China, Bangladesh, Philippines, Morocco... Here We Go!
The boys visited the site: www.ifitweremyhome.org to get an initial feeling for the country they were about to visit. After a few minutes they were asked to reflect on Edmodo.
"I notice that the money made is 90.09% less. I wonder if that affects the daily way of life in Morroco?" - Bauer
"I notice because Vietnam is very poor that there are more negative things than positive. I wonder if the Vietnam war didn't happen how much more money they'd have." -Nicholas
"I notice that India has a huge population for a country. They make not a lot of money. So I do not know why a lot of people live there." - Cheddar
After their reflection they researched the capital city of their country. It was fun to seem them discover new places and rush to the map to see exactly where it was. But the fun really began when they set out on their ipads to discover images using Panoramic 360 Cities (which is both an app and website).
In a reflection circle the boys commented:
"Jakarta seemed pretty nice in some areas. But then I discovered some real poor sections." -Jashae
"Mexico City is nothing like the Mexico I have travelled to before. Not all of Mexico is beach." - Chris
"Hanoi was pretty where I was. And I thought it looked clean" -Jack
"In New Delhi it didn't seem like their was electricity" -Michael
If felt like a successful launch at this point. The boys were energized about learning about the world and so I launched into some word problems from some of our past partners to get them thinking how math can play a role.
What did we learn? Where did we visit?
About our location Colorado:
- How tall the mountains of Colorado are.
- How tall the highest mountain pass in Colorado is.
- Location of Colorado.
- Distance we are from Colorado.
- How long it would take to get their by plane.
Math Concepts with Colorado Word Problem:
- Conversions of Feet to Meters
- Subtraction
- Multiplication
About our location Peru:
- What is the Inca Trail?
- How the walls were built in Peru.
- Where the 12 Angled Stone is.
- Location of Peru.
Math Concepts with Peru Word Problem:
- Interior angle measurements of polygons
- Types of Angles
- Multiplication and Addition
Hooked? Kind of... When I told the boys I was hoping to create new friendships with schools across the globe in the hopes of learning about other places and cultures they were STOKED. Potential Skype call if we were lucky? SOLD.
So what do I need from you? A word problem.
Don't think your "exotic" enough for these boys...CHALLENGE.
Share with us something we don't know. We can't wait to be friends.