Chapter 2: What Are Data? (Days 7-8)
Let's get to today's Blaugust topic.
Since today's the 19th, here's the nineteenth topic from Shelli's old 2019 list:
- What is your favorite quote? How can you share/use it in your classroom?
On the old blog, I listed the following two favorite quotes:
Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences.... Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world. And what is worse, men who are thus ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance and so do not seek a remedy. -- Roger Bacon (13th century English philosopher)
"If you don't know the answer, at least know where to find it."
Of course, what inevitably happens is that I state the quotes each year on August 19th -- the day I respond to this Blaugust post -- and then I forget them the rest of the year. I must make more effort to incorporate these posts into my teaching.
Fortunately, I finally have new district email, and the students finally have their textbooks. The latest I've heard is that Stats and Ethnostats will indeed use the same text. But Ethnostats will use supplementary materials more, so that the text is really just their as a suggestion. Teachers who are less traditional will appreciate having a non-text-based class (as if traditionalists were ever enamored of a class like Ethnostats in the first place).
This blog will follow the general Stats class, which will be run more the traditionalists' way. I'll continue to follow the Ethnostats class on Twitter. (As of now, I've finally touched base with my predecessor, who taught this class last year and now teaches at the main high school in the district. I might have a Zoom conversation with her in the near future.)
I'm also in the process of setting up Google Classroom. One thing about my previous job as a sub is that all the Google Classrooms are already set up for me, and I don't have to think about it. Now I'm the regular teacher, and so all of these decisions that I take for granted are now up to me.
Here are my plans for assignments and grading. First of all, I want to breakdown the percentages for grading as follows -- 40-30-20-10. The 40% refers to tests and 30% refers to quizzes. But here's the thing -- I could weight the grades in Google Classroom (and Aeries, where grades are ultimately posted to Canvas). But I hate weighting grades, because it can be misleading to students. I'd much rather assign the points myself so that the grades work out to be the right percentages.
For example, I can plan on having 1000 points for the semester, so that there are 400 points for tests and 300 points for quizzes. With 400 points for tests, I could have four tests each worth 100 points. This really works out well for Calculus -- we know that Chapters 1-7 are covered on the AB exam, and so it make sense to cover Chapters 1-4 in first semester and Chapters 5-7 in the second semester, just before the AP exam in May. Then the 400 points cover the four chapter tests (with the Chapter 4 Test being part of the first semester final).
As for the quizzes, I could have six quizzes each worth 50 points. But looking at the schedule, I think that only four quizzes fit comfortably into the schedule. There won't be a Chapter 1 Quiz, since it's taking me so much time to set up Google Classroom that I don't wish to quiz the students now. I make up for this with two quizzes in Chapter 3, one of the longest chapters in the text. Then each quiz will be worth 75 points.
All of this, of course, refers to the Calculus text, but I have more Stats students than Calc students, so the emphasis needs to be on Stats. The Stats text has 21 chapters, but I don't necessary wish to give 21 chapter tests. Each Stats chapter is shorter than a Calc chapter but longer than a Calc lesson (or section, as in Lesson 1-1).
So it makes sense to cover several chapters per test. I could give the first test just before Labor Day, thus allowing me to grade tests over the long weekend. It appears that the first Calc test might end up around the same time as well. If I were at a large school, I'd come up with some way to stagger the tests so that I'm not grading so many papers at once. But this is a small school, and while students are both entering and leaving my class, the general trend is that more are leaving. Thus I won't be overwhelmed with grading Stats and Calc on the same weekend.
Why are so many students dropping my class? If I recall correctly, Sarah Carter, who's been teaching more seniors in recent years, explains it best. Most schools require only three years of math, and so not all seniors need to take any math class. They enroll in math until they realize that they don't need it to graduate, and so they drop math altogether. At my school, there are a few students who took Calc AB last year as juniors, but we don't offer BC. They sign up for Stats, but then withdraw from math entirely.
The 20% and 10% are for homework and classwork. I won't have that much official classwork -- mostly just Warm-Ups and Exit Passes -- so it makes sense to make this the 10% section. I'll count the early Name Tents as 10 points, and then 15 weeks of Warm-Ups/Exit Passes will be worth six points each (which is logical -- three Warm-Ups and three Exit Passes).
This leaves the homework section, worth 20%, or 200 points. Once again, our Stats text has questions at the end of each chapter, but I can't have only 21 assignments in a one-year high school math class. And so I must do some clever accounting in order to have enough assignments.
We need to find 200 points of assignments. Here's how I do it -- we take notes from each page, and each page of notes counts as a point. Some of the pages have formative assessment questions, which I can then collect as homework. I can cover six pages each block day and three pages each Monday, which will get us through 200 points and 200 pages by the end of the semester. The text has over 500 pages, and so I'll need to cover a few more pages in the second semester in order to finish the text (but there's no AP, so I can cover lessons the entire month of May).
Today I begin with Chapter 2 of the text, "What Are Data?" I cover the first six pages of this chapter and then post the first assignment to Google. There are five formative questions on these pages, and so this becomes my first six-point assignment.
I know that I'm supposed to be done with the Sarah Carter activities. But yesterday, she tweeted an activity from her Stats class about categorical and quantitative variables. And -- you guessed it! -- categorical and quantitative variables appear right here in Chapter 2, within the first six pages.
And so I set up the activity and have the students work on it today. Unlike many of Carter's activities, this one is only on Twitter -- so far, she hasn't blogged about it:
Since I can't print these, I just wrote the eleven examples from the first picture on Post-It notes and gave these to the students.
A few of these are controversial and generate debate in my classes. According to Carter's picture, "assigned room number" is a quantitative variable. But our text avoids calling such labels (room numbers, area codes) quantitative -- perhaps it makes more sense to call it categorical, or maybe even not a variable. Also, it's tricky to understand why "whether or not stitches are required" is categorical while "which patients require stitches" is quantitative. Perhaps for the latter, what's implied is "how many patients require stitches."
During first period Stats, right at the start of music break, I leave the classroom to take the first of several required coronavirus tests. All staff members must test, even those who are vaccinated. The testing only take a few minutes, and so there's still time for me to perform the song -- Square One TV's "That's Math":
THAT'S MATH by Gregory Hines
First Verse: Hey, thank you,
Hey, come on in here.
Let me tell you something about math,
Let's look at this bill. What have we got here?
I had two plain pies at six bucks apiece,
Add one with extra cheese, that's seven.
Add eight cream sodas, a buck a pop,
Adds up to $27.
We know the tax is five percent,
In this great state we live in.
Multiply by three, 15 percent,
That's the tip that I'll be givin'.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! That's how you figure it out.
That's math! That's math! That's what it's all about.
Second Verse: Bottom of the ninth, we're up by three,
Full count, two outs, and three men on.
This guy comes up hitting .405,
Six homers last month alone.
Gotta think, last year he hit my fastball,
Six times out of seven,
He was three for five on my curveball,
But only one for four on my slider.
After going over the numbers,
I wind up and let one fly,
I strike him out with my slider,
And I'm voted Most Valuable Guy.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! That's what it's all about.
That's math! That's math! That's how you strike 'em out.
Third Verse: Imagine an island three feet wide,
A thousand feet below,
I gotta drop a survival box,
To save a guy named Joe.
So I calculate my altitude,
Direction and wind speed,
And I factor in the box's weight,
And the angle I will need.
Now I'm not ashamed to say I hit,
A perfect bulls-eye and move on.
Joe can eat until he gets rescued,
I just hope he likes croutons.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! That's how you figure it out.
That's math! That's math! Bing! Beng!
Fourth Verse: Now the only thing as great as math I see,
As far as I'm concerned,
Is music I can dance to,
Here's something I recently learned:
Music is a kind of math,
And intervals and beats.
Every time I sing a note,
Every time I move my feet.
And it's not just school,
It begins when you close your book.
Tread any path and you'll find math,
Everywhere you look.
Refrain: That's math! That's math! That's math! Bing! Beng!.
That's math! That's math! That's what you can do with math.
Today I mention the last two resolutions: "9. We pay attention to math as long as possible" and "10. We are not truly done until we have achieved excellence."
In third period Calculus, I cover Lesson 1.2, "Mathematical Models: A Catalog of Essential Functions."
Yesterday in Advisory, the dual enrollment Zoom meeting occurred. Students learned about a Mass Media class that they can take this semester. The class will take place on our high school campus during Advisory period on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The students are highly encouraged to sign up for the class, since they have to be on campus for advisory anyway -- they might as well earn some college credit while they're here. The way the administration make it sound, a college instructor will be in our classrooms three days per week. (But there are three senior classes -- how can one college instructor be in three different rooms?) So the students who don't sign up for the college class would be in effect auditing the class anyway for no credit.
This means that, once the college class starts the week after next, I'd be only responsible for teaching Career Advisory content on Fridays (since there's no Advisory period on all-class Mondays). And so I'll extend Name Tents through next week for Advisory only. (I'm ending this this week for math.) And I might come up with special things to do on Fridays (until official college and career assignments are given to be by the administration). This might include an opening activity for tomorrow (since after all, tomorrow is Friday).
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