Math O Lanterns 2011

This past Friday was an exciting one in Room 308. From the moment the students walked in the door, until the very end of the day we were immersed in a celebration of Math O Lanterns 2011. It was meant to be a morning activity, but when asked if they wanted to keep working on math for the rest of the day it was a unanimous vote for 'more math', so we kept it going all day.

Participants were broken into groups, named after popular monsters, and given a set of math related tasks that revolved around the pumpkin they chose from the pile. Basically it involved a series of estimations that they then went on to measure and compare by graphing their results on a number of charts around the room.

Students gained an increased awareness of volume, weight, height, circumference, and diameter through this activity. Of course their understanding of pumpkins also was enhanced.
During the consolidation portion of the day, we reflected on the data collected by the class, and some insightful observations were pointed out. One was that all group estimates of volume were higher than the actual measurements (volume of pumpkin gunk). The theory was that they didn't understand how much a litre measurement was really, and that they had no idea how much gunk was in a typical pumpkin either. Another observation was that there was a relationship between the number of seeds, and the weight, regardless of the size of a pumpkin.

It was a day of exploration and discovery, with a bit of creativity thrown in. Once finished, all groups designed faces for their pumpkins. We will continue to enjoy these fun faces on Monday, and examine more of the data in class over the week. Who knew that Halloween could be so educational?