Close the Door on Hunger Food Drive - Algebraic Representations in Real Life

The art club is sponsoring a food drive the week of Dec. 13-17.  I had the idea to help boost the giving:  Have the students bring food items to block the teacher's door with donated food items and then there will be no class in that classroom on Dec. 21st.

To tie this idea into my math curriculum, the project needed to address algebraic representations, the tested indicator we are currently working on right now.  So... we are going to figure out how much is needed to fill a doorway.  We'll look at cans, cereal boxes, macaroni and cheese boxes, toilet paper, and bars of soap.  This addresses a real life application of area and measurement, however, these are not tested indicators for 8th grade.  Students will get the dimensions, make the calculations, and then create a table of values, graph, and equation to present their data.  To help promote the project, they will then create a public service announcement to air on the morning news each day.

Now that the idea has been born, the details need to be ironed out.  I used IdeaSketch on my iPad to create a web of everything that was floating around in my brain.

I love having time at our TRC workshops to work on an idea.  It allows me to not only get the details in place, but also to get handouts created.

Once I get the direction of where we're going, if there is time left during our day, I get to try out the lesson as a student.  Today, I focused on getting a better grasp of Google Sketchup.  I downloaded a doorframe and then tried to construct a can proportionally to fit the correct amount in the doorframe.  I have enough cans for the height, however, my width of cans is not correct.  During this I learned about keeping my guides in mind so my angles are all correct.

To change the background in Google Sketchup:

~ Go to Windows

~ Style

~ Edit

~ Background