2/25 So Little Time

The theme for this week was definitely time pressure. After losing 2 weeks to snow days and another one to the mid-winter break I’m feeling behind. The most immediate problem: scheduling the 4th MOEMS test. I had originally planned it for a few weeks ago and the 5th one is about to be released. On top of that I have a fixed guest lecture and pi day in the next two weeks. Neither of which can be moved around.

So I was left considering:

• Do 2 tests back to back at the end of March in order to hit the deadline.
• Do 1 test now even though its the first week back and I’d  prefer from a scheduling standpoint to do something freeform.
• Give up on completing all of the MOEMS parts.

I finally decided to go with option 2. I’m worried about the flow from week to week but I couldn’t quite bring myself to punt on finishing them all mostly because I think the questions are really good and we end up with a good group discussions afterwards.

What was interesting this time was based on the questions I needed to work a bit on some vocabulary. This is one of those pieces I only do on demand if a task merits it.  Before we got started discussing solutions I put up the requested terms 

• Factoring
• Simplest Form Fractions

Then I had kids try defining them. What’s interesting is that finding simplest form of a fraction requires one to factor.  So the two terms are related. As a group, the kids were able to volunteer reasonable defs. I also tried to bring out the several senses of factoring. From break a number into a product of smaller integers, to breaking a polynomial into a product of simpler expressions, to factoring out a common multiple via the distributive law. 

The second way time pressure came up was between this and the last  session I’m building up a list of topics I really want to discuss  in further depth.  Last time, it was around a counting problem and thinking about the positive and  inverse cases and which would be easier to solve.  This time, I briefly referenced the divisibility rule for 11’s (which many kids knew but some only partly)  but I didn’t have the time to justify why it  works.  I really want to come back to both of these subjects sometime in the future. As it stands I’m considering making the divisibility rule into a POTW so I can wedge it in.

Overall, this was an easier set for the kids to finish. I think the scores will be higher than last time. I’m liking the focus on non integer solutions and some of the number theoryish questions that are being asked this year.

I went back to Strimko puzzles from: http://www.puzzles.com/projects/StrimkoPrevious.htm for something to keep early finishers occupied.  These were as popular as I remembered from last year.

Finally, because it was such a long gap  I did not have great participation in the former POTW so after a discussion of partial solutions I gave it to the kids again to try for a 2nd time:  

(Link: https://www.futilitycloset.com/2019/01/22/fair-play-3/)