March 9 - 13, 2020
March 9 - 13, 2020
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Fitness with Ms. Bergen's Grade 4's
Fitness with Ms. Bergen's Grade 4's
We had fun taking leadership for a fitness class with Ms. Bergen's grade 4 students, leading them through about 20 different fitness exercises. What impressed us was their positive attitude, perseverance and overall fitness level.
March 12
March 12
Debates!
Debates!
Today we had our debates on whether children under the age of 18 should need to have a parent's permission to purchase sugary drinks.
We drew names randomly to determine debate partners and we also did a random draw to determine whether debaters had to defend the "pro" or "con" side of the debate.
It was really interesting to hear the arguments and evidence presented in debates. One of the things we realized is that clear, fact-based arguments that are supported with evidence are much more convincing than opinions. That will be an important strategy for our next round of debates on Canadian History.
March 11
March 11
Aquaponics System Frame Design/Build
Aquaponics System Frame Design/Build
Today Mr. Huxley, the construction technology teacher at E.L. Crossley joined us to consult on our frame design. We shared our scale drawings with him and discussed our ideas about the design. Because of his expertise, he had great suggestions about making our design stable and functional. He looked at our scale drawings and was impressed that they look very much like what he expects his grade 11/12 students to produce.
We are looking forward to seeing a first draft of the design and to seeing our frame become reality after March Break.
Thanks again to Mr. Huxley for taking time after school to join us and for his enthusiasm for our project.
March 10
March 10
Dividing Integers
Dividing Integers
Grade 8's have been investigating dividing integers. It was easy to think about a negative number divided by a positive number (ie. (-12) divided by 4). We thought about that as if you wanted to divide a debt of $12 (negative 12) into 4 equal payments (each payment would be $-3). Or, we looked at taking the average of several negative temperatures (see image middle right). It was easy to see that a negative divided by a positive would have to be a negative.
We had several ways of thinking about a negative divided by a negative. One way we discussed is that dividing any number by itself is 1. Therefore, we proved that a negative divided by a negative must be positive!! (see image top right). There are other ways of proving this ... have a conversation with one of us so we can convince you.
Our goal is to connect our understanding of integers and exponents to solve order of operations problems like the one in the image bottom right.
Solving for Variables
Solving for Variables
Grade 7's are using their understanding of patterns and pattern rules to investigate strategies to solve for variables in equations.
We are now using "algebraic expression" instead of pattern rule when we're talking about the relationship between numbers.
We started to look at strategies to solve for an unknown (ie. "y") in an equation and realized that we can use the opposite operation (see image to the right).
Our goal is to be able to master solving problems like the ones in the image below.
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