Lesson 8-8 of the U of Chicago text is called "Arc Measure and Arc Length." This and the next section are the same in the old Second and modern Third Editions -- except that arc measure appears much earlier in the new version (in Chapter 3).
This is, of course, the lesson when students learn about the number pi. Two of my favorite lessons to teach each year are the Pythagorean Theorem and pi. Both three and four years ago, I rearranged the lessons so that Pythagoras appears near the Distance Formula and pi is taught on Pi Day. But since we're following the order of the text this year, Pythagoras and pi are taught here in the same chapter!
Indeed, since following the digit pattern means that our pi lesson isn't on Pi Day, you might ask, what lesson will I post on Pi Day instead? According to the blog calendar, March 14th works out to be the 130th day of school -- which, unfortunately, is the day of the Chapter 12 Test. It doesn't seem right to give a test on such a special day, especially a test that isn't even about pi, but on similarity instead. Luckily, I have two months to figure out how I'm going to celebrate Pi Day on the blog this year.
The seventh grade U of Chicago text, called Transition Mathematics, is much more convenient for setting up the pi lesson near Pi Day. Today's lesson on the circumference of a circle is Lesson 12-4, and Lesson 12-8 is on spheres -- whose surface area and volume formulas definitely use pi (so at least the Chapter 12 Test that I'd give on Pi Day is about pi). Keep in mind that I'm referring to my old Second Edition, not the new Third Edition -- the Third Edition of Transition Math teaches pi in Chapter 7 and stats in Chapter 12.
Much of my chapter rearrangement in past years was driven by my desire to celebrate Pi Day by teaching the famous constant. Thus I began the second semester with Chapter 12, so that we would be in Chapter 8 on measurement. The chapters following 12 are also related to similarity (such as trig) while the chapters following 8 are also related to measurement (such as volume), and so the net result was that we covered Chapters 12 through 14, and then back to Chapters 8 through 10. This year I wanted to follow the book order, at the cost of severing the link between pi lessons and Pi Day.
Three years ago I tried to combine Lessons 8-8 (circumference) and 8-9 (area), but the worksheet I posted on Pi Day leaned more towards area. A month later, I subbed in a seventh grade classroom where students were learning about circumference.
But I'll wait until tomorrow to reblog what I taught in the class I subbed for that day.
Before we return to 2019, let's think about two years ago, 2017. Yesterday I wrote about how I should taught the Pythagorean to my eighth graders that year, and so today I'll do the same regarding pi and my seventh graders that year.
Actually, I never reached the lesson on pi that year. That's because I was waiting, as usual, for Pi Day to teach the lesson, but I was out of the classroom before March 14th. In fact, I wrote in a post dated later that month what had actually happened on Pi Day. I decided to give my students one last surprise by delivering a pizza to my old classroom. But the bell schedule was mixed up that day, with school out early the entire week for second trimester Parent Conferences. It turned out that sixth grade was in the classroom at the time I delivered the pizza. Thus the sixth graders got to celebrate Pi Day with a pizza, even though seventh grade is the year that pi appears in the Common Core.
So had I made it to Pi Day, how would I have taught the lesson? Pi Day fell on a Tuesday last year, and at the time, Tuesdays were for projects. I assume that the Illinois State text had some sort of project where students had to measure the diameters and circumferences of various round objects -- in other words, an activity not much different from the one I'm posting today.
On the other hand, I posted that I should have made Tuesdays the traditional lesson day. Still, I see no problem with a brief measurement activity before the traditional lesson -- just as I'd given the eighth graders a brief Pythagorean Theorem activity before the traditional lesson two months earlier.
I had no control over Parent Conferences or the bell schedule. Again, I don't know when seventh grade had class that day -- only that sixth grade was the last class. If I were teaching, I wouldn't have been able to get the pizza -- but I could have sent my support staff aide to purchase it instead. After all, she'd bought a pizza for our eighth grade class four months earlier. (I mention this pizza in my Epiphany post from last weekend, in the "October 2016" section.) As a bonus, I could have had her get an extra pizza to share with my fellow teachers as they waited for Parent Conferences to begin.
So that seventh grade isn't left out of the party, I could bring some other round foods -- such as cookies -- for the students to measure. They only get to eat what they measure, so this is an incentive to do the activity correctly. Meanwhile, sixth grade gets a party but isn't learning about pi. Actually, I remember that there was a pi activity near the end of the Illinois State sixth grade STEM text page as a preview of seventh grade. The Pi Day pizza party would have been a great excuse to do this -- provided, of course, that I was given more than a day's notice as to what the bell schedule would be that day (which, as you may recall, wasn't always guaranteed on shortened days).
Suppose now that I had returned to the school and was planning a Pi Day lesson and party this year (my would-be third year at the old charter school), then how would I do it? This year, Pi Day falls on a Thursday (as opposed to early-out Wednesday), and I believe that second trimester Parent Conferences Week will be two weeks after Pi Day.
This means that, for the first time in my career, I'd actually have a class on March 14th at 1:59. I'd love to have my Pi Day party at that time, but which grade level would I have then? I can't quite be sure what the bell schedule is like these days. Recall that during the first half of my year at the charter, afternoons were for IXL (with eighth graders on Thursdays). But after the midpoint of the year, afternoons were changed to SBAC Prep (with sixth graders at 1:59). In neither case would I have seventh graders (the ones who actually learn about pi).
Suppose that Pi Day at 1:59 is eighth grade IXL time. Then I could set up an IXL lesson on volumes of cylinders, cones, and spheres. The idea is to earn at high a score as possible by 1:59, and then serve pizza, pie, and other goodies based on their scores. If this is sixth grade SBAC Prep instead, it's probably harder to justify the party since pi doesn't appear on the Grade 6 SBAC. But I could still give the students a short list of SBAC problems to be completed by 1:59, then serve food.
And as Pi Day is a Thursday, this is a STEM project day (provided that the traditional lesson is given on Tuesday). Of course, that day I choose an Illinois State project related to pi.
For the second straight day, we're avoiding the elephant in the room -- classroom management. The problem is when I am the regular teacher and there's no one for me to leave names for. And my support aide -- the only adult my students respect in my classroom -- might not be present if she's out buying the pizza!
Yes, I know that many of these recent posts have turned into spilled milk and discussion of my class from two years ago again. But it's important to reflect on my past failures in order to set myself up for future success if I ever return to the classroom. The sky is the limit!
Since today is Thursday, this is not an official activity day. And so I am posting a brand-new worksheet for pi that isn't activity-based.
I create a worksheet containing the Exploration questions from the U of Chicago text:
a. Measure the circumference of your neck with a tape measure to the nearest half inch or centimeter.
b. Assuming your neck is circular, use your measurement to estimate your neck's radius.
c. What would be another way to get its radius? (Cutting is not allowed, of course!)
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