During the last week of school, students got to play Mario Kart 8 in order to collect data for a math challenge. Each student got to race in a time trial. The character, vehicle and track were all of the same (we discussed the importance of keeping the variables the same). Students raced 3 laps and the fastest time was recorded. Students rounded their time to the nearest second (which led to a lesson in rounding decimals).

Afterwards, students worked in partners to complete the following challenge:

Students first used paper and calculators to complete the task. Students discovered that all the races combined totaled 882 seconds or about 15 minutes. We discussed the challenges of adding large groups of numbers using a calculator. This led us to a lesson on adding numbers using Google Sheets. Students also discovered that we could use Google Sheets to order the numbers from greatest to smallest (or smallest to greatest).

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A large variety of designs and creations:

A very successful design!

Students took a variety of approaches to solve this problem. Some used pattern blocks, tiles or cubes where as others represented the necklaces using coloured squares. Also one group of students represented the beads using letters (y and r) whereas another group of students represented the beads using numbers (1 and 2). Students found a total of 6 combinations. One of the strategies that students discussed was finding one combination, then swapping the colours of the beads to find a second combination. What great math thinking!

Afterwards, students made digital posters advertising their city as well as movie trailers promoting their city.

Students created digital posters to promote healthy eating as well as to put down their devices and video games and get outside and play!