Math Exploration Topic Submissions Spreadsheet

Sample Explorations:

Pretty good example, includes Mr. Lao's final grade comments: Optimal Way to Throw to a Dog

Pretty good example, includes Mr. Lao's final grade comments: Optimal Shape of a Pizza Box

Pretty good example, no comments included: Surface Area of a Sculpture

Pretty good example, no comments included: Passwords on a Smartphone

Average example of a statistics Exploration; Mr. Lao's comments included: Rising Sea Levels

Example of a poor Exploration: Modeling Musical Chords

Example of a poor Exploration: Vectors in Football

Here are all the website notes from our days working on the Exploration, in reverse chronological order:

Monday, 3/11 - we're wrapping up our Internal Assessment in Math SL and reflecting on the whole process. Here are the slides from class. Here is the guided worksheet we went through to reflect on our Math Explorations. Mr. Lao collected these for a grade.

Monday, 3/4 - Friday, 3/8 - we worked on your Math Exploration in class. Mr. Lao is absent on Wednesday, 3/6, and it's a half-day on Friday, 3/8. Here are some final reminders for submission requirements for your Math Exploration. Your Math Exploration is due at 10PM on Sunday, 3/8.

Monday, 12/17 & Tuesday, 12/18, & Thursday, 12/20 - we took time in class to work on our Math Explorations. A near-complete draft of your Math Exploration should be uploaded to ManageBac and is due by 10PM on Thursday, 12/20, unless you've made arrangements with Mr. Lao.

Monday, 12/3 - we considered how to incorporate the feedback we received into our Math Explorations. Here are the slides from class. Here is a calendar to use as a tool to help you plan out your next steps on your Math Exploration.

Thursday, 11/29 - a draft for peer review of your Math Exploration is due in class, either printed out or accessible from a computer. We are working on peer reviewing our drafts today. Here are the graphic organizers we used in class to help frame our Explorations to each other and to provide feedback to each other. Here are the slides from class. Your next deadline is a draft (for Mr. Lao to read and give you comments) by 10PM on Thursday, December 20th uploaded to ManageBac. If it is more stressful for you to have this deadline here rather than some time during break, please let Mr. Lao know.

Wednesday, 11/7 - we read more sample Math Explorations. Here are the slides from class. Please see the "Math Exploration" section of this website for sample explorations.

Monday, 11/5 - we reminded ourselves about the rubric for the Math Exploration and we reviewed our topic submissions to see if we were approved on this public spreadsheet. Here are the slides from class. Please see the "Math Exploration" section of this website for sample explorations and the spreadsheet of topic submissions.

Math Exploration Topic Submission - please follow this link to submit your Math Exploration topic idea for approval. Submissions are due by 10PM on Tuesday, 10/30.

Wednesday, 9/12 - we received general feedback on our mind maps and looked at the rubric for the Math Exploration for Math SL. Here are the slides from class. Your next mind map, of your choice, is due on Monday, 9/17. You will have one mind map of your choice due every Monday for the next few weeks.

Thursday, 9/6 - Wednesday, 9/12 - We are starting the process of writing our Internal Assessments in IB Math SL, called the Math Exploration.

We made and looked at "topic-to-math" mind maps that might help us generate topics for our Explorations. Here are the slides from class.

Your HW is to create one "topic-to-math" mind map for a topic of your choosing, due tomorrow. The idea is not to get a definitive topic out of this exercise (but you might!) but instead to practice making mind maps to help you start thinking more critically about what kind of topic you'd like to write about and also to see the world in a mathematical light.

Friday, 9/7 - we made and looked at "math-to-topic" mind maps that might help us generate topics for our Explorations. Here are the slides from class. Your HW is to create one "math-to-topic" mind map for a stimulus word of your choosing, due Wednesday after the long weekend, to be collected.