Pass It On! Linear Modeling Activity

Do you want your students to be engaged?  Do you want them to make predictions?  Do you want them to Move and Learn?  Are you working with linear equations?  Try this activity in Algebra 1.

Pass It On Book Passing Activity
Students will be passing 4 textbooks around the room in a established pattern. (see picture)  The number of students that pass the books will be determined and then the length of time will be noted.    (number of students passing the books, time to pass books) = (x,y)    Predictions will be made for the x and y unknowns.


Explain the outline of the activity.
Assign a timer.
Assign a note taker to record the data. (in a google sheet with a common link preferably)
Establish a pattern for passing the books.

Establish a short (approximate 10 second) routine for BEFORE the books are passed.  (jumping jacks, twirls, stacking books one by one, etc. This is to establish some type of y-intercept for the problem) See the video.

Practice passing the books around the path to make before timing the events.

Now time your class doing 3 people, 8 people, 14 people and 21 people.  

Record the data in a Google Sheet.  Here is our data from our class:  http://tinyurl.com/racingthetime 

The data is below: these coordinates are in (# of people moving the books, time) = (x,y)

(3 people , 11.17 seconds)

(8 people, 17.4 seconds)

(14 people, 25.4 seconds)

(21 people, 34.67 seconds)

MAKE PREDICTIONS

Get your class into groups of three and ask these two questions.  

How long will it take for the books be moved by 30 people?  

(30 people, ? seconds)

If it took 73 seconds to move the books, how many students did the moving? 

(? people, 73 seconds)

I had the groups put their predictions in the google sheet that was created for the data.  

Lastly have your class actually test the predictions by measuring for 30 people and 73 seconds.  It was a lot of fun to find out the actual time for 30 people and the actual amount of people for 73 seconds.  The students were really into it.  

Good questions to ask 

What does the slope mean?

What does the y-intercept mean?

What methods could be used to predict your answers?

Hope you can give this a try.

My Best,

Dave