Great Application Problems

What made the water tank and ticket problems we solved yesterday more satisfying and more challenging than the versions you might find in a textbook? Create a rubric for great application problems — what you'll find in their beginnings, middles, and ends.

The Slow Runner

What kind of math problem could we build around this video? What would you find in its beginning, middle, and end?

YouTube comments are sometimes profane. The related videos in the sidebar are often inappropriate. Sometimes Internet access is unreliable. For all these reasons, head to Zamzar and get a copy of this video for your own computer.

1. Watch Nature by Numbers.
2. Copy the web link.
3. Go to Zamzar.
4. Click paste.
5. Under "Choose the format," select "mov."
6. Enter your e-mail address.
7. Click "Convert."

The Bone Collector

What kind of math problem could we build around this video? What would you find in its beginning, middle, and end?

If you'd like to isolate a moment from the video and talk about it with your students:

1. Press the Print Screen button.
2. Go into the Paint program and select Paste from the Edit menu.
3. Use the rectangular selection tool to select the area you want.
4. Open another Paint document and press Paste.
5. Save that file.
6. Import it into a new Mimio slide.

Handbrake

If you find a mathematical moment on a DVD (to my lawyers: a DVD that exists in the public domain) and you'd like to save it to your computer for safekeeping, easy access, and sharing:

1. Download Handbrake. (It's free!)
2. Insert the DVD into your computer.
3. Open Handbrake
4. Select your DVD in the window that opens. (Or click Source.)
5. Click Browse and decide on a location for the finished file.
6. Click Start.
7. Locate your file and open in QuickTime.
8. Select Trim from the Edit menu.
9. Adjust the yellow handles to the edges of the clip.
10. Click Trim.
11. Select Save from the File menu.

Graphing Stories

Can you convert a dull video of one guy walking across a bridge into an engaging and challenging math problem. The facilitator will model Graphing Stories. The participants will create their own and present them to each other.

Survey

Please give me some feedback on today's workshop so I can improve it for our next session. Let me know what you liked, what you disagreed with, and what you'd like to hear more about.

Speaker

Dan Meyer taught high school mathematics from 2004 to 2010 and currently studies at Stanford University on a doctoral fellowship. His professional interests are curriculum design and teacher education. His personal interests are graphic design, filmmaking, and infographics. He keeps a steady eye out for collisions between the two. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife.