Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Snow Day Extra Credit

Geometry Option 1:  Quadrilateral Pancakes

That's right.  Make 5 different quadrilateral pancakes and email me (at my work address of RobertOsterman(at)wlcsd(dot)org ) pictures of them.  Let's see those Rhombuses, Squares, Kites, Parallelograms and if you're truly daring the elusive, the mysterious, the often whispered of but rarely seen Isosceles Trapezoid.

Disclaimer:  I am not responsible for any mess you make, or any trouble you get in.

Geometry Option 2:  Quadrilateral Mnemonic

A Mnemonic is a trick used to help remember a set of things.  For your exam which will be given on the day you come back from your snow holiday (for 4th hour) or the following day (for 1st) you absolutely need to memorize, simply, a lot of stuff.  You need to memorize all the properties of diagonals.  You need to memorize all the conditions of quadrilaterals.  You need to memorize if a square is a rhombus and if a kite is a rectangle.  Come up with something to help remember one ~Set~ of things.  Some examples would be:
  • A phrase such as "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" to remember the quadrilateral Heirarchy.
  • A visual layout (but not a venn diagram or concept tree like we used in class.)
  • A poem or rap explaining how the sides of shapes change as you go from Quadrilaterals down to Squares.
Algebra:

Here is your challenge:

Step 1:  Figure out the volume of snow in your yard.  Remember that the volume for any 3D shape is V = Length * Width * Height.  Now you may have to be a little creative about how to get around your house, or how to figure out the area of your yard.  Also you can pick any moment today to do your measurement of snow depth (since it's still coming down here).

Step 2:  Take an ammount of snow, and measure it's volume.  Then let it melt, and see how much water you have.  I recommend getting a cup of water (as in a measuring cup), and then bringing that in and letting it melt.  A microwave will speed this up.

Step 3:  Calculate how much water you would have if the volume of snow in your yard were to completely melt.

Step 4:  Find out online how much water a typical person should drink each day.  Use that to figure out how many "days" worth of fresh water you and your family could have by simply drinking the snow.

You must show all your work neatly for this to be considered.

For All Classes:

Geometry Option 1:  10 Homework points
Geometry Option 2:  10-20 Homework Points
Algebra:  10-20 Homework Points

This is all Extra Credit and any student can turn in any ONE extra credit project.  If you turn in an assignment for a differnt class you only recieve half the points, however.  These are due to me at the start of our next class session.

As a hint:  If you get stuck, it's very normal (and probably acceptable) to ask a parent, older sibling or friend for some hints/ help.

And here's one set of pancakes!  (though they look suspicously like they were cut to shape....)

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