Assignment #8

Group Members  ___________________            Period  ___________

                            ___________________

                            ___________________

I need HELP STUDENTS!

Students, this project is crucial and I need YOUR help!  Although this is a group effort, please remember that every member of your group must take responsibility for at least one task to make sure that this project will be successful!

This project will be broken down into several tasks, which will be worked on during class for the remaining two weeks of the quarter before assessments.  THIS IS YOUR FINAL assessment, showing me that you have understood the math concepts entailed. 

For your assessment, you will construct and test your oven. 

Every summer my family and I go camping with friends at Bellows, in Waimanalo.  Every year each family cooks a meal for dinner and every year we experience an EPIC FAIL!  Last year, we tried using a dutch oven which took too long to cook anything decent and the year before that we used an open fire, which ended up burning our dinner.  Eventually, we ended up with hungry stomachs and very unsatisfied friends and family.  In talking to other teachers about my awful camping cooking experiences, one teacher had mentioned that a parabolic oven might solve my problem, materials are inexpensive, easy to make and fast!  Please help me and my family get some ideas to make a parabolic oven.

Using the vertex form of equation

Y = a(x-h)2 + k

(h, k) is the vertex

In your project please include the following:

• Title page
• Circle Map
• Tree Mao
• Graph of parabola
• Definition of focus point (h, k, p)
• Write
• How your group made a parabolic oven
• Explain how it works and how the focus point is important to a parabolic oven
• How you can make a better design
• Reflection
• What did you like/dislike about the project
• How can we make this project better

Assignment #7

The main ideas that were brought up in conversations with colleagues if there was enough time to be doing a major project as such especially during the 2^nd half of the semester where students are taking the HSA testing.  Not much concerns  on the project itself as we have been adding components to the project that could potentially be helpful in the construction of the oven.  One of my colleagues had suggested that we could also ask retailers such as Longs Drugs, Walmart and Foodland for donations for the materials needed.  I thought about including that into the project as well, but after sleeping on it, it wasn’t something that I wanted to spend too much time on as far as writing letters as we are pressed for time. 

Assignment #6

I had several colleagues look over the project sheet, not much feedback was given but all teachers encouraged me to build my own prototype oven.  With the lack of experience in building an oven (anything for that matter), I turned to one of the other teachers who wanted to use the project herself.   With a few basic items, cardboard, foil, skewer, duct tape and graphing paper in tow, this is what we came up with--- Tah-dah!

In the process of planning this project, I think I struggle the most in is the overall outcome of the oven.  I feel that the students should be able to make their own oven without me showing them a prototype, but I will provide them the necessary tools to build the oven.   My fear in showing them a prototype will stifle and limit their creativity and would set boundaries when coming to revisions as well.

In talking to my colleagues, it was decided that the entire project would be a group effort.  The only individual work that would be done by each group would be their reflection in the end.  I also would group students according to high-medium-low.  Grouping students with mix ability levels has its advantages, as the high achievers tend to help the low achievers and I am also concerned about labeling (smart group/slow group) which can cause a potential self-esteem issue for students.  I would instruct the groups to assign specific tasks to members.   I think that although this project is a group effort, they should be responsible for at least one particular job to do within the group.  

This project is designed to be done at the end of the quarter.  As we all know, Math is linear and therefore the project is based heavily on prior knowledge.  Breaking down the activities that would bring students closer to building an oven would depend on completeness of prior assignments.  This project was not meant to be done all in one period but progressively throughout a number or days.  One day completing graphs, one day completing thinking maps, and so forth allowing students to not feel overwhelmed with the components of this project.

Revisions would be encouraged at every step of the project, overlooking their progress will affect the overall outcome of the construction of the oven. Using conferences with each group would be beneficial for students as they would get immediate feedback from me to make sure that they are on the right track.

Assessing these benchmarks I have included a rubric to which students will have in their packets to know what is expected of them.