High School Halloween Lesson!!!---Pumpkin Pi Math Lab
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What educators are saying
Description
BEST HALLOWEEN MATH LESSON!
I can hardly put this lesson into words! It is that good! I created this lesson years ago, and it evolves year after year. This lesson takes an investigative approach to math! Students work in groups to take measurements of pumpkins and hypothesize about the volume. The STEM investigation has students reason through the value of Pi and what the ratio represents. The lesson concludes with a discussion and conclusion page allowing students to make sense of volume and their calculations. The lesson brings math full circle, and my students consistently rave about the hands-on lesson throughout the rest of the year. This lesson is geared toward high school learners, but if you teach middle school, this lesson would also be great for advanced 7th and 8th graders as well.
Whats included:
Lesson Plan
Student Handout (Tried and true by my own students) (4 Pages)
Lesson Power Point!!! (It's beautiful. I promise :-p) (10 Slides)
(Approximately 90 minutes)
What you need:
5 Pumpkins (Nice and round ones!--You can buy them or have 5 students bring in their Jack-O-Lanterns!)
5 Tape Measures (Like this one: https://amzn.to/2ZkBZdI)
Calculators (These will do: https://amzn.to/2nmQs7J)
Set up:
1.Set up 5 stations– One for each pumpkin. The stations should include: A pumpkin and tape measure
2.Label Stations #1 through #5
3.Print the student handout for each student.
4.Project the included Powerpoint slides before students enter the classroom.
Lesson sequence:
1. Bell work- Vocabulary and formula review
2. Go over bell work and lesson procedures. Assign groups.
3. Groups will rotate stations to take measurements of 5 pumpkins. Measurements include: circumference, diameter, and radius.
4. Groups will sit down together and calculate ratio of pi, area of the bottom, volume of a sphere, and volume of a cylinder with pumpkin dimensions.
5. Groups will answer discussion and conclusion questions about their findings and calculations.
6. Lesson concludes with whole class discussion.
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