Chapter 15: Probability Rules! Continued (Days 144-145)

Today in Ethnostats, we finished the Jackie Robinson Day projects that we started this week. Recall that this includes "Think Pair Share" on the two articles (one of which mentions the school-to-prison pipeline at Robinson's alma mater, Pasadena Muir High School). The main event happening with all classes this week is progress reports. Today marks the last day of the so-called "third quarter" -- and at the main high school in the district, it's the second report card out of three for the second semester, logically suggesting the five-sixths point of the year. Notice that today is Day 144, so mathematically speaking, we're through neither 3/4 nor 5/6 of the year, but 144/180 = 4/5.

And this is why the big tests and projects in my classes are due this week. While Ethnostats classes finish their Robinson projects, the Trig class took its Chapter 3 Test on radian measure and the unit circle. And Calculus also had its Chapter 6 Test -- well, sort of. Yes, it's yet another Wi-Fi failure on a major test day.

Originally, I wanted my students to take their test in near-AP conditions. Since many volume questions in Chapter 6 depend on a calculator, I decided to simulate the two calculator sections of the AP exam. First, the students would answer 15 multiple choice questions in 45 minutes on paper, then they'd answer some questions on DeltaMath in 30 minutes, corresponding to the free response section. Of course, the paper part presented no problems yesterday, but DeltaMath was another matter. (The Trig test was all on paper.)

It appeared the the Wi-Fi was simply working slowly. I'd set up five questions in DeltaMath (the real free calculator response question has two questions each with multiple parts, so five is reasonable). I might have let them take the DeltaMath part anyway and then counted whatever they managed to complete in 30 minutes on the slow Internet (like two questions, for example). But when one girl was summoned to go home early right at the 45-minute mark, I decided just to cancel the portion on DeltaMath altogether (since it wouldn't be fair to her to mark her down for missing those two questions right before grades are due).

This meant that the rest of the class had 30 extra minutes to complete the multiple choice question. The girl who left early had finished her test before leaving, and two other guys were also done. But two others needed the rest of that time to do the multiple choice. (I warned them that on the real AP, time would have been called right around whene the first girl left, so they'd note how far they reached by that moment.)

Today is Friday, the first day of the week on the Eleven Calendar:

Resolution #1: We take pride in our work and cite our sources.

Oh, and speaking of "cite our sources," in Ethnostats we also work on our third Stats article of the semester -- the one where students must cite their sources, They complete this Assignment #30 in class today, and turn in everything (article, Think Pair Share, Stats Scrapbook) for progress report grading.

There is no school on Good Friday or Easter Monday. The next day of school is on Tuesday, an odd day, and so the next even (hence blogging) day is on Wednesday.

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