Pumpkin Math

It's fall time and Halloween is just around the corner...you know what that means??

Pumpkins are EVERYWHERE!

Why not incorporate them within your lessons next week and have your students do some pumpkin math?

Here are some links to my blog series on pumpkin math that I did with my students last year.

I hope it is something you can see trying in your own class this year. I bet your students will have a blast!

Pumpkins A-Plenty

Pumpkin Math - Day 1

Pumpkin Math - Day 2

The Harvest Cart Challenge

The Harvest Cart Challenge

In order to get full use of the pumpkins we got delivered to the class. I decided to end the week with one final challenge. I call it "The Harvest Cart Challenge". I took my Wheelbarrow Challenge and put an Autumn spin on it.

The students were placed into groups of 4-5 students, and presented with a bag of "junk". Using only the material found in the bag, they were required to design and create a "harvest cart" that would carry the heaviest pumpkin.

For the bag of "junk", I use whatever I can find, but I always make sure that each group gets the same items. Here is what I was able to dig up this time around.
-paper bags
-juice concentrate lids
-nails
-tacs
-milk lids
-straws
-paper clips
-clothes pins
-pipe cleaners
-elastics
-popsicle sticks
-skewers
-construction paper
-foam paper
-newspaper
-string/yarn
-masking tape/duct tape (I usually give an arm's length)
-hot glue (each team is given a set amount of time to use the hot glue gun)

If you plan on doing this activity in your class, your supplies could look entirely different than mine, don't stress about finding the same things. That is what I love about this activity, the students are basically making something from nothing...the more random the items, the more creative the final product!

**I always send my students on a scavenger hunt at the beginning of the year to collect things I will find useful in my math classroom, so I always have plenty of junk lying around. If you don't have a pile of junk lying around your classroom like myself...I would recommend starting to collect supplies a couple of weeks in advance. Make sure to ask your students and other staff members for help.**

Ok, back to the challenge.
I usually start by showing my students a few ideas on the projector. Ie. A picture of a wagon, wheelbarrow, old fashioned cart, etc. just to get them thinking.

Each group was required to first sketch their cart, before beginning construction. Depending on your students, the construction phase can take anywhere between 1 and 3 classes.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures during the construction phase, so I will skip ahead to the testing phase.

Down the middle of my classroom, I placed masking tape about 5 meters apart signifying the start and finish line. Each group was required to transport the pumpkin on their cart by either pushing or pulling. If the cart made it the full distance with no major signs of distress, it made it to the next level.
With each level the pumpkin increases in size. I usually start of with one of those small ornamental pumpkins, just to make sure everyone passes the first round. Make sure that you have a variety of different sized pumpkins (I usually write the weight on the pumpkin for the students to see) I would recommend having at least 6 different sizes. I always end up being amazed at how heavy a pumpkin some of their creations can actually withstand!

Here's a few pictures of us testing the carts out. (sorry, they aren't the greatest)

The kids had a blast!

I hope you try this activity with your kids or something like it. It is a great way to get kids interacting with one another and putting their creative porblem solving skills to the test. I also find this to be a great activity for incoporating the design process, which is a large component of their science mark.

To finish the week off, the kids were all able to carve a pumpkin to take home.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, next up...Christmas!

Kim

Pumpkin Math - Day 2

Now that we have our data collected about "The Average Pumpkin", today my students were required to represent the data in the form of a graph and present it to the class.

Being grade 8, my students have had quite a bit of prior learning experiences with graphs, so I did not do any pre-teaching prior to this activity. However, if graphing is a newer concept to your students I might do this as a culminating activity to your unit. You can download my FREE set of graph posters here.

Back to our pumpkin data...
I kept my students in the same groups as yesterday and each group was given a sheet of data (the sheets that they recorded their data on yesterday as a class), along with an assignment to complete using that specific data.

Group 1 was required to show the average pumpkin's mass in the form of a horizontal bar graph.

Group 2 was required to show the average pumpkin's width and height in the form of a line graph.

Group 3 was required to show the preferences of eating pumpkin pie in the form of a pie graph.



 Group 4 was required to show the "rollability" of the average pumpkin in the form of a double bar graph.

Group 5 was required to show the amount of ribs the average pumpkin has in the form of a picture graph.





Lastly, group 6 was required to show the circumference of the average pumpkin in the form of a vertical bar graph.

Being grade 8, my main goal was for the students to not only be able to represent the data in the form of a graph, but be able to "teach" the rest of the class about the graph and the way it represents the data. For the younger grades you may choose to place the emphasis on a different part of the activity.

So far I think we've made pretty good use of our pumpkins, but I have yet another group challenge for tomorrow.

Kim

Pumpkin Math - Day 1

Ok, so now that I have all these pumpkins, let's do some math!


Today I split my kids into 6 groups of 4. Each group was given a pumpkin, and a booklet to work through. Within the booklet they needed to collect data related to their pumpkin. In order to collect the data they needed to travel around to a few different stations throughout the room.

 

The measurement station

 At this station students measured the height, width, and circumference of their pumpkin. They also measured the length of the stem.

The volume station

At this station students determined the volume of their pumpkin using the water displacement method.

The weigh station

At this station students measured the mass of their pumpkin by weighing it on a scale.

The "rollability" station

At this station students had a little fun by testing the rolling ability of their pumpkin. They tested it on a low inclined plan and a high inclined plan.


Students were also required to describe the appearance of their pumpkins, determine whether a pumpkin will float or sink, as well as survey their group regarding preferences for eating pumpkin pie.

Once the students were finished collecting all the data about their pumpkin, one group member was asked to come up to the front of the room to add their data to the charts provided. This way we have the class data compiled all in one place. This information will be used tomorrow, to help the students represent the data collected about "The Average Pumpkin".

Stay tuned...


Kim

If you are interested in trying this activity in your own classroom, you can find everything you need here.

Pumpkins A-Plenty

I don't know about the other middle shool teachers out there, but sometimes I find myself a little jealous of all the creative things elementary teachers come up with to do with their students, especially around the holidays/seasons. I find when it comes to teaching middle school, especially if you are a subject-specific teacher, it can sometimes be a challenge to incoporate themes into your activities.

There are a few reasons why I think this is:
1) I always feel like I am in a race against time to meet all my outcomes/standards. Sometimes it seems like there just isn't the time to be creative, and let the kids have some fun.
2) Dealing with teenagers, sometimes it can be a challenge to come up with something that will hold their attention long enough and not come across as too juvenile.
3) If you are a teacher who teaches only 1 or 2 subjects to multiple groups of students it can be hard to integrate your theme into the other subject areas in a way that will be beneficial for the students. It can also be difficult to spend a lot of time preparing your lesson to have to rush through it because you only see a group of students for one period a day.

Even with some of these extra challenges in the middle grades, I always try to incorporate a few themes throughout the year.

So here we are at the end of October, with fall all around us, and Halloween just a few days away. With all the excitement of Trick or Treating and the looming Halloween dance, I figure I better make this week a little different, to keep my students engaged.

What better way to incoporate Fall and Halloween than to bring in some pumpkins! 50 of them to be exact, since I teach 2 different classes of students. Luckily we have an awesome Pumpkin patch fairly close by, and they were more than willing to deliver a truck load of pumpkins to the school.

So how do I plan on making good use of these pumpkins? Well first thing was to get my team of teachers on board. Each subject area teacher will be integrating the pumpkins into his/her lessons in some way. As for me, I have a few ideas up my sleeve.

Here are just a few of the things I plan to incoporate into this fun-filled week:
1. Team work
2. Data collection
3. Graphing
4. Problem Solving
5. Design Process

Stay tuned to see what I do tomorrow...

Kim