Meyer gas tank/grocery store

Dan Meyer has posted more pictures on his blog regarding "math needs a makeover". The first post is about measuring the level of a cylindrical gas tank with a dip stick. It is quite fun and easy. Read his post here.

His second post is about comparing items in the grocery store. He provides many photos which will create great opportunities for your kids to do higher order thinking in your math class.

If you are new to his ideas, you can read more on my posts about math and/or Dan's work. Basically, his idea is that in math problem solving we pave the road to the answer and don't allow deep, divergent thinking about the process of problem solving. From my experience, even when teachers try to provide more open ended questions, students ask them for more information and the teacher can't resist and begins to pave the road again by giving hints or teaching convergent techniques.

As Conrad Wolfram says, let them struggle, hear about their process and give them a little technique (not too much). I would highly encourage you to look into the work of Dan Meyer, Conrad Wolfram, Alfie Kohn and Paul Lockhart. I have blog posts on all of them and links to their work.

Enjoy continuing the math-makeover!