Happy Friday!
I just had a fun, but challenging day talking about graphs with our 6th grade students. It was fun because their brains were kneading-away at how on Earth to put their thinking into words. It was challenging for them because they didn't have a good way of saying what they understood in words. I wanted to share it in case you want to follow up at home. And I highly encourage it!
Up until now, the kids have had LOTS of practice graphing distance over time graphs. But on today's target practice, they were asked to examine and explain some speed over time graphs that have many of the same shapes as the graphs they've seen before. When I showed them two graphs that had the same shape, but different variables, most of the kids wanted to say the graphs meant the same thing. But they were completely different. Here are descriptions of the two graphs (they were both just sketches... there were no actual scales or numbers on the graph... just axis labels):
Distance Over Time:
The distance increases at the same rate over the first third of the time scale. Then it plateaus for the remainder.
Speed Over Time:
The speed increases at the same rate over the first third of the time scale. Then it plateaus for the remainder.
It might be fun for you to sketch these graphs and then to talk about them with your child (or print out some sketches here [link]). Listening to them think through it might let you hear what I'm describing and it would give them a GREAT chance to revisit the topic outside of school!
I hear the weather this weekend should be great! Here's hoping the weather forecasts work!
Sincerely,
Brian MacNevin
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