Journal Article: Water Bottle Designs and Measures

Carmody, H.G. (2010). Water bottle designs and measures. Mathematics teaching in the middle school. 16(5), 272-279

This was a wonderful article, there were so many neat ideas and concepts introduced throughout the article! In the beginning of the article the author mentioned how students are excited about the unit of finding surface area and volume because of the authentic and hands on activities. Students will work ahead on homework because they actually enjoy what they are learning, and believe it or not, they discuss math concepts outside of the classroom. The article suggested having an engaging classroom and hands on activities that have open ended questions. I thought this was such a helpful article for future and new teachers because it breaks everything down. The article has a list of questions to make the lesson open ended and ways to incorporate higher order thinking. The is also tips to ensure that students fully comprehend the project or assignment. All the ideas listed are ones we discussed throughout the semester. (Which makes me super happy!) Ideas include having peer collaboration, written reflections, using manipulatives or visuals, project proposal, and algebraic notation.

The activity that is discussed in this article is actually a 19 day project, and there is an outline of the activity included in the article. This is yet another reason why this is such a fantastic journal. This shows that this project is a success and really helps students further their understanding. The water bottle activity is where students need to create an object that holds a specific amount of water. They need to sketch three drawings where they using mathematical terminology and explain which drawing is their favorite and why. The article concludes by introducing other ways to incorporate surface area and volume into the classroom, such as making race cars.

I thought this was a very useful article and had many interesting lessons throughout. My favorite part of the article was the beginning where the author gives the reader a schedule of the timeline of the unit. I thought this was very useful and laid how much time to spend introducing and reviewing the topic and then how much time should be spend creating the project. As a future teacher I have no idea how quickly or slowly my future students will learn, so it is nice to have a sample timeline to base lessons off of. I will most definitely use this lesson, because it seems super exciting!

Technology

After completing blogs this semester I have realized how valuable internet usage is in the classroom. Having students reflect on their discoveries and what they liked and disliked about the activity helps students deepen their learning. Since their are so many professions that are based off use of technology, incorporating technology at an early age will help students prepare for the future and enrich the learning process.

What I most enjoyed about completing the blog this semester was reading the monthly journals from the NCTM website. I thought they were meaningful and easy to adapt to any grade level. I like how they were already tried out in an actual classroom and reading it in the journal meant that the lesson had positive outcomes and results.

Looking back at the semester I also realized how much technology was used, besides just for research purposes. From day one I was introduced to a variety of different ways of technology. For example the Wiki page, the math applets, and the videos on the NCTM website, using the SMART board, and practice using the manipulatives. All of these programs will help me further deepen my learning which will help me in my future classroom. Technology is changing rapidly so as teachers we need to stay on top of it, because tomorrows leaders our in our hands.