Lesson 5.1.3: Bouncing Balls (Day 101)

EDIT: At first I had an original 14EDL song here, but I don't like how it turned out. But six years ago at the old charter school, I played Weird Al's "Polka Patterns." It was right around this same time of year, and it was also on the day of a Bouncing Balls activity in Math 8.

I didn't want to play this because I felt guilty for going so long without a true 14EDL song. But if this song sounds better and fits the lesson, then I should have played it.

So I'm EDITing this in as a reminder to perform it the next time I teach a Math I class -- and to remind me to purchase some bouncier balls in order to make this a better activity as well.

Chorus:

Everywhere, I see them there
I stop and stare at patterns
I don't care, I must declare
I've got a flair for patterns
On my hair, the clothes I wear
My savoir faire is patterns
All I see is patterns
The patterns that repeat

First Verse:

I know we're in a room where you would not expect much math
Usually you're in here for a shower or a bath
But if you gaze upon the floor, and if you're kinda smart
You'll see the repetition is like geometric art (to Chorus)

Second Verse:
A polkameister like myself never has to be bored
I just grab my ax and play some patterns on my keyboard
Now's the time for earplugs if you care about your health
So stand back, everybody, I'm gonna express myself
Look at this, patterns
I've got blisters on my fingers
Woo, hey, aw, get down
Yeah, help me, somebody, woo

Third Verse:

Next time you find yourself at an exciting polka party
You can make some patterns with your feet and with your body
If you don't know the steps yet, here's the gang with all the answers
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing, the "Weird Al" Polka Dancers (to Chorus)

Outro:
Wallpaper, skyscrapers, funny papers, patterns
Evergreens, nouvelle cuisine, human beings, patterns
Garden rakes, wedding cakes, rattlesnakes, patterns
Golden wheat, little feet, my heartbeat -- Patterns!

And here's a link to the relevant Square One TV video:

Chapter 5 of the CPM Math I text continues with arithmetic sequences. But the last lesson of Section 5.1 is called "Bouncing Balls," and it serves as a transition to non-arithmetic sequences, in preparation for geometric sequences in the next section.

The song indicates how I teach the lesson today. I take a real ball and bounce it near a yardstick to measure how high they bounce. When I start from a height of six inches, my ball bounces -- well, it's not exactly three inches, but I obviously want the numbers here to be simple. I demonstrate how bouncing the ball from taller heights results in higher bounces. Then I ask a student or two to bounce a ball starting from their desk or the side of the whiteboard -- a height of 32 inches (close enough). Some are able to figure out if the first bounce is sixteen inches, then the next bounce will be eight inches, and so on.

You might recall that back at the old charter school, there was a "Bouncing Balls" project in the eighth grade Illinois State STEM text (and it was even right around this same time of year -- late January or early February). This project is not quite the same -- that one was about bouncing a ball once from different heights, while this is about bouncing it several times from a single height. (Recall that geometric sequences is one of the few topics that's part of Math I but not Math 8, so multiple bounces was not part of the old lesson.)

Since the Math 8 "Bouncing Balls" activity fell on a non-blogging day, I don't have much record of how that project went, but I believe that my eighth graders enjoyed it. Perhaps I could have made today's activity more extensive like that old one -- say by having a ball for each group and having the students compare their bounce heights.

But today I decide to do the quiz corrections instead -- especially since so many students had trouble with the last Chapter 4 Quiz last Friday. In second period, students talk throughout the entire lesson -- even as I try to explain how to correct their answers. I end up contacting a whopping five parents to notify them of their students' talking during the lesson, quiz, and corrections. Fourth period, as usual, is much better behaved, so perhaps a deeper Bouncing Balls activity might have worked here.

Today is Sevenday on the Eleven Calendar:

Resolution #7: We earn our grades through hard work and dedication.

And that's exactly what the student do during their quiz corrections. I do wish to improve my lessons in second period. Yesterday students received their honor roll certificates in second period -- thirteen of my kids got them (about 40% of the class). I definitely want to get this class quieted down, since I know that at least thirteen students in there are interested in learning.

Today's not supposed to be "A Day in the Life," but I wish to do an extra one today -- not for today, but for last Saturday. That was the day of the Academic Decathlon, and my school participated in it. It's the first in-person Acadeca competition since before the pandemic.

I've always wanted to watch the Super Quiz, ever since I almost made my own school's team as a rare young freshman (before I moved and switched to a school that didn't have an Acadeca team), and so I decided to watch it in person last weekend.

So here's a quick summary of the afternoon's events, written in "A Day in the Life" format, and taken directly from the program that was handed to us spectators:

3:15 -- Opening Procession & Ceremony. The defending champions, Mark Keppel High School, led the procession, followed by the other schools in alphabetical order. The pledge of allegiance followed.

I point out that Keppel High is located in Alhambra, which is not far from the Monterey Park shooting that had occurred a week earlier. There was a moment of silence to honor the victims.

3:35 -- Welcome. Several leaders from the community introduced us to the competition.

3:45 -- Start of Super Quiz Relay. The theme this year was the American Revolution. But, as I found out, all subjects were covered during the Super Quiz, including math. The final two questions in each round were math questions. If I recall correctly, here are the math topics covered:

Round 1: Simplifying expression with powers of i, solving an absolute value inequality

Round 2: Identifying solutions of a trig equation, solving a quadratic equation

Round 3: Solving a triangle, identifying equations of perpendicular lines in standard form

I tried to solve some of the math problems myself, but with only twenty sections per question, it was very difficult -- especially since it's hard for me to read the questions from my seat. I got one wrong for misreading the sign, and other because I couldn't distinguish the "less than" and "greater than" symbols.

5:15 -- End of Super Quiz Relay. As expected, Mark Keppel won the Super Quiz again. But the written parts of the competition continue this week. We'll know in about three weeks whether our school will advance to the state-level competition.

None of my current students are decathletes. (After all, freshmen at Acadeca are rare, so that rules out my Math I classes. While many decathletes might be in Math III, they're more likely to be in the honors classes that I don't teach.) 

I can't help but think about the COVID What Ifs, and whether it's possible for me to have participated in the Academic Decathlon in one of those alternate universes. But that's a topic that we should save for a vacation post to discuss on the blog.

Instead, I think back to my Math III class. And yes -- I cover part 2 of the last Chapter 7 topic before the test, namely the Law of Cosines (which might have come in handy at Acadeca this year).

But what worries me is that another student has dropped my fifth period Math III class and switched to another teacher. And I think I know exactly what incident drove her away from my class.

Last week we took the Chapter 7 Quiz, and my fifth period class was quiet (for once). But the next day was the quiz corrections, and several students were talking and whispering that day. I mentioned this on the blog last week -- recall that I ultimately decided not to give credit for any corrections.

At no point did I ever name this particular girl as one of the talkers. And her grade even without the corrections was a B- (which is higher than her grade at any point in the first semester). Still, she felt that she was being treated unfairly -- her corrections didn't count even though she wasn't talking. Apparently this was enough for her to ask her counselor to switch out of my class.

As I wrote last week, anything I could have done would be deemed unfair by at least one student. I wonder what would have happened if I had made a positive list of those students who weren't talking and declared that only their corrections would count -- would this student still be in my class today?