Let It Grow Sunday!

This week's game is called Grow.



Draw each item to the center of the ball to Grow it. If you drag them in the right order you will reach the maximum growth level for each object -- that's the challenge and it's not easy. ;-) Lots of trial and error. The number of different ways to play this game is 479 001 600. Can you find the winning strategy?

The Applied Math class will learn how to figure this out this week. Pre-Cal will learn it in about two more months and you folks should remember from your Pre-Cal class. Do you?

Have Fun!

Quiz and assignment

So, at the start of class, we started out by doing a small homework check. Except, Mr. K didn't want to do it. So he pushed it off for the next class. Instead, he proposed we have a homework QUIZ. 6 questions copied STRAIGHT from the homework book. I forgot the 1st question. 2nd, 3rd and 4th (2. A,B and C) were all factoring questions. 5th and 6th question I also forgot. Sorry Mr. K. So, after a "10 minute" quiz (it was really 40 minutes), Mr. K handed out a sheet that has 2 graphs involved. Evaluating Limits as they reach a certain coordinate. 18 questions. We didn't finish by the end of class, so we continue to work on it the next day. Sorry for the short entry, I didn't realize I was still supposed to do the post. Just hit me now =P that's why I forgot the questions. Sorry Mr. K!

Also the next Scribe will be Calvin

Tell Your Parents the Blog is Multilingual!

You'll notice that all posts on our blog now have a series of flags automatically added to the bottom. Click on a contry flag to have the blog translated into that country's language. You can choose from:

French, German, Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Filipino

If you speak any of these languages, let me know if they work well enough to be understood. And tell your parents all about it! ;-) Encourage them to leave comments on the blog as well.

Scribing Guidelines ...

These are the instructions for how to write a scribe post:

Write a brief summary of what we learned in class today. Include enough detail so that someone who was away sick, or missed class for any other reason, can catch up on what they missed. Over the course of the semester, the scribe posts will grow into the textbook for the course; written by students for students. Remember that as each of you write your scribe posts. Ask yourself: "Is this good enough for our textbook? Would a graphic or other example(s) help illustrate what we learned?" And remember, you have a global audience, impress them.

Yes, you do have an audience that spans the globe. Click on Our Visitor Map over in the right hand sidebar to see what I mean. ;-)

Chinese? Checkers? Chess?

Chinese Checkers it is called in England. Kinasjakk (Chinese Chess) in Norway. The truth is that it has nothing to do with neither checkers, chess, nor China.

'The Chinese Checkers game board is in the shape of a six pointed star and is playable with two up to six people at the same time. Each player uses pegs or markers of a different color placed within one of the points of the star. The object is to move all your ten pegs across the board (move one step at the time or jump over adjacent pegs) to occupy the star point directly opposite. The player getting all pegs across first wins.' - More.

You can play it here.

(Thanks again to Think Again!)

The Scribe List

This is The Scribe List. Every possible scribe in our class is listed here. This list will be updated every day. If you see someone's name crossed off on this list then you CANNOT choose them as the scribe for the next class.

This post is can be quickly accesed from the [Links] list over there on the right hand sidebar. Check here before you choose a scribe for tomorrow's class when it is your turn to do so.

Cycle 7
Van
Temesgen

Sunday Funday!

Each Sunday, just for fun, I will post an online game or puzzle. This week it's a logic puzzle ... we look in on a prisoner with a problem ....

---

For the last trial, the king used not two, nor three, but nine rooms! The prisoner was told that one room contained a Lady and the other eight were either empty or filled with a tiger. The sign on the Lady's door was true, the signs on room with tigers were false, and empty rooms had signs that were either true or false.

These were the signs:

1. The lady is in an odd-numbered room.


2. This room is empty.


3. Either sign 5 is right or sign 7 is wrong.


4. Sign 1 is wrong.


5. Either sign 2 or sign 4 is right.


6. Sign 3 is wrong.


7. 7. The lady is not in room 1.


8. This room contains a tiger and room 9 is empty.


9. This room contains a tiger and 6 is wrong.

The prisoner studied the nine signs for a while and came to the conclusion that the problem was unsolvable. The king admitted his mistake and told the poor prisoner if room eight was empty or not.

The prisoner needed no more help. He deduced where the Lady was. What about you?

Problem source: The Lady or the Tiger and other Logic Puzzles by Raymond Smullyan. (With thanks to Think Again!)

Sribe Day# 1

Okays, this will be my second scribe because, I did one for precal40. Oh joy was that fun, but now I have a rough idea of how to start one off and keep going with it. So let's begin.

So, in today's class, (February 8th), we got the quiz back from Mr. K. We didn't do too great. Mr. K was disappointed, but told us "don't worry about what you got, just put your effort in". So, we went over a few questions, none of the material on that quiz was new. It was all review, and a test on algebra skills. So, we forgot everything. I failed and... I failed. Not fun, but after seeing the corrections, everything fell in place and started making sense all over again. So, we didn't really learn anything at all. Except the fact, we forget pretty fast and that, the thing Mr. K was talking about, the forgetting curve theory was proven. So, since nothing was learned, this scribe is only to say that, we learned nothing today, except review. Sorry for the short scribe, but I don't have really anything else to say.

The next scribe maker will be Temesgan.
Enjoy!
Van

Students Made This!

Blogging is a very public activity. Anything that gets posted on the internet stays there. Forever. Deleting a post simply removes it from the blog it was posted to. Copies of the post may exist scattered all over the internet. I have come across posts from my students on blogs as far away as Sweden! That is why we are being so careful to respect your privacy and using first names only. We do not use pictures of ourselves. If you really want a graphic image associated with your posting use an avatar -- a picture of something that represents you but IS NOT of you.

Two teachers in the U.S.A. worked with their classes last year to come up with a list of guidelines for student bloggers.

One of them, Bud The Teacher, has these suggestions, among others:

1. Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for our blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school.



2. Never EVER EVER give out or record personal information on our blog. Our blog exists as a public space on the Internet. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. For your safety, be careful what you say, too. Don’t give out your phone number or home address. This is particularly important to remember if you have a personal online journal or blog elsewhere.



3. Again, your blog is a public space. And if you put it on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always. That means ten years from now when you are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can come back to haunt you if you don’t.



4. Never link to something you haven’t read. While it isn’t your job to police the Internet, when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be creepy or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably try a different source.

Another teacher, Steve, developed a set of guidelines in consultation with his students. You can read them here.

Look over the guidelines and add the ones you like in the comments section below this post; either from one of Steve's students or one of your own. I think Bud's suggestions are excellent. We'll be using the one's I highlighted above as a basis for how we will use our blog.

Cheers,
Mr. K.

You're Here! Let's Begin ...

Hi There! You found our blog! This is the place to talk about what's happening in class; to ask a question you didn't get a chance to ask in class; to get copies of a handout you didn't get in class (here's the course outline); for parents to find out "How Was School Today;" to share your knowledge with other students;.... Most importantly it's a place to reflect on what we're learning.

Remember what I said about the Forgetting Curve? Well a big part of Learning and Remembering involves working with and discussing new ideas with other people -- THIS is the place to do just that. Use the comment feature below each post, or make your own post, or make your own blog and link it to this one, or....the sky's the limit...let your imagination soar and lets get down to some serious blogging!

Here's your first online assignment:

Do you see the Links list in the side bar over there on the right? Follow the Study Skills Resources link. Browse through the sites until you find one that you think has excellent suggestions on how to study math; then, on a piece of loose leaf paper (or this worksheet) to be handed in on Wednesday:

1. Write the address and name of the site you most liked.


2. Rate the site out of 100; i.e. give it a grade!


3. Write a brief description (no more than 4 or 5 sentences) of the site.


4. Include a comment on what it was about this site that made it stand out for you (no more than 1 or 2 sentences).

Repeat this exercise for the second link that deals with Test Taking, i.e. how to write a test.

If you take this assignment seriously now and invest some real time and energy into it, you'll probably do real well in my class this semester...who knows, it might even help you in your other classes too! ;-)

Have Fun!

PS Don't forget to email me ASAP and get signed up as a contributor to our blog!! When you get your "invitation" to our blog, follow these directions to get yourself signed up at Blogger.