Test Your Math Skills

Time: 45-60 minutes

Materials:

Tape measures / Paper / Pencils / Calculators / Tangram handout / Tangram pieces

Activity 1

  1. Have each pair of students stand facing each other. Ask them to compare the positions of their partner’s eyebrows and ears and tell you what they see. Eyebrows are usually at the same level as the tops of the ears.
  2. Tell them to compare the position of their ears with the position of their noses. They should notice that the bottom of the ears are generally at the same level as the tip of the nose.
  3. Have the students change partners and repeat a few times in order to examine whether their observations about ears, eyebrows, and noses are true for everyone.
  4. Help students create a chart to record their data in. They will be measuring height and wingspan for different students.
  5. To measure wingspan, one of the group members should stand and hold their arms straight out to the side, like wings on a flying bird. Another group member should use a tape measure to measure the wingspan from the tip of the person’s longest finger to the tip of the longest finger on the other hand, making sure to round to the nearest whole number and to note the units.
  6. Next a group member should measure the height of the student whose wingspan was just measured.
  7. Students in each group should take turns until all students have been measured. Then, they should all subtract their height from their wingspan and record it on their charts.
  8. Explain to the students how to show their data on the graphing table by drawing the graph included below on the board. Then create a blank version of the graph on the board and allow students to come to the board to record their results.
  9. Have the students analyze the class data by looking for trends and patterns. They should also try to locate a column with the most entries, which will represent the mode. The mode is the most frequent number or category that occurs in a set of data.
  10. Draw a line connecting the top X in each column. Graphs like this will often form a bell-shaped curve.
  11. Help the students find the median of the data. The median is the point at which half the data are above the point and half the data are below.
  12. Help the students find the mean of the data. The mean can be calculated by adding up all the entries and then dividing by the number of entries. Make sure the students know to include the negative signs when appropriate.
  13. Discuss outliers with the students, especially if there are examples in the data.

Activity 2

  1. Have each pair of students spread their tangram pieces out in front of them.
  2. Ask the students make each of the shapes listed below:
  3. Square
  4. Triangle
  5. Rectangle
  6. Space ship
  7. Cat
  8. Fish
  9. Challenge them to make each shape with as few pieces as possible and then with as many pieces as possible. Once they’ve successfully made all of the shapes, encourage them to be creative and try making other shapes of their choosing.
  10. Discuss real world applications as the students work. For example, creating efficient layouts to reduce wasted materials, packing trucks better, etc.