How Much is a Million? by David M Schwartz is one of many picture books I have on my bookshelf.  It’s a great book to help students visualize what a million, billion, and trillion look like.  A Million Dots by Andrew Clements is another one of my favorites.  In the book, you will actually see ONE MILLION dots!  Don’t believe me?  You can count them yourself!  Check to see if you have it in your school library!

I really thought I knew everything there was to know about a million, billion and trillion until I came across this Numberphile video.  If you’re up for a challenge and making your brain stretch a little, then this Math Minute is for YOU!

Directions: 

1. Print a copy (or have your teacher print you a copy) of this worksheet.
2. Follow the directions on the worksheet.  When you’re finished, turn in your completed worksheet to the EY Coordinator at your building.
3. Post a comment below about something new/interesting you learned from the video.

What is your favorite kind of cookie?  Mine is chocolate chip and I especially love my mother-in-law’s recipe that has pudding in the batter.  Yum!

For this week’s Math Minute, look at the choices below and get started!

• Watch this video about one of America’s favorite cookies.  Jot down some facts as  you watch the video.  Complete this quiz afterwards.  One response per person.  Duplicate responses will be eliminated.
• Check out this website listing 15 interesting facts about the “World’s Favorite Cookie”.  Post a comment below with something new and interesting you read.  One comment = 1 Entry for the cookies for your class.  In your comment, include your first name, grade, and school (i.e. Toby, 2, Sunset).
• Oreo Thins have a diameter of 4.5 centimeters and a thickness of 7.5 millimeters.  Write your answers to the following questions on a sheet of paper with your first and last name, school, grade, and teacher.  Have your teacher put it in the “Pony” to Sunset Hills EY.  One entry per student please.
  •  What is the Circumference (C = pi * diameter) of an Oreo Thin?
  • What is the Area (A = pi * radius squared) of an Oreo Thin?
  • How tall would a stack of 10 Oreo Thins be?

image taken from https://www.pdclipart.org/

Research has been conducted on the effectiveness of using video in the classroom, and according to one study by Kaltura, video is better than the written word when it comes to information retention, education, and overall experience.

I can vividly remember my 7th grade math teacher showing a video call The Case of the Missing Chick Cows : Adding Positive and Negative Integers.  In the video, the Chick Cows were disappearing all around town and farmers started to blame each other for stealing them, only to find out that at night, the Chick Cows were linking arms and flying away.  Some of the Chick Cows had left wings and others had right wings.  When they linked arms together, they were able to fly away.  Over 30 years have past since I watched that video and I still remember it.  Videos have a way of making information “stick” and we are in a day and age were we have access to a plethora of videos that can help us learn.

For this Math Minute, print off the worksheet, “A Math Minute A Day” and use a QR Code reader to scan the code for each video.  As you watch each video, jot down new and/or interesting information.  What connections can you make?  Which video did you find the most interesting?  Silly?  Entertaining?  Let us know by leaving a comment!

Image taken from: https://www.pdclipart.org/