All posts by lspady

Paper Folding (Act it Out)

Concepts

Take any piece of paper and fold it in half.  Fold it in half again…and again.  Is there a maximum number of times that a piece of paper can be folded in half?  Does it depend on the size of the paper?  Does thickness matter?  Make an organized chart of the types and sizes of paper you will try to fold.  Decide up front what you will consider a successful fold.

Screen shot 2013-09-08 at 10.21.31 PM

Some problems lend themselves to the “act it out” strategy.  Watch this video to see some students act out the folding problem with toilet paper.

Let’s Go Fishing

Concepts,

Rules of the Game

You need to fish to survive!

  1. Each round will last 1 minute
  2. You will be fishing with your straw. Only whole fish will count.
  3. If you take 0 or 1 fish, your family will starve and you will lose the game
  4. If you take 2 fish your family will live, but you won’t make any money
  5. If you take more than 2 fish you can ‘sell’ them for points
  6. When your group runs out of fish the game is over
  7. Each fish remaining at the end of the year is able to spontaneously reproduce and make one new fish. For example, 2 fish become 4, 4 fish become 8, up to a max of 16
  8. NO COMMUNICATION WHILE FISHING!!!

Use the following tables to keep track of the points.

Game1

Discussion Questions

-Did anyone in your group take too many fish? How did that make you feel? Did everyone try to take as many as possible? Why or why not?

-What was your strategy for round 2?

-How did your strategy change?

-What is a model?

-What other models do you know of? Can you use your strategies in them?