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Spring SAVY 2019, Day 4 – Using Algebra to Make and Break Records (3rd/4th)

Posted by on Monday, February 18, 2019 in Grade 3, Grade 4, SAVY.

Hello SAVY parents!  As we are learning about world records I set a Reading World Record of 10,000 pages to be read by the class in 6 weeks. It pleases me that the students have worked hard to not only meet that goal but to exceed it.  We have currently read a total of 7,998 pages. Way to go students!!

On Saturday, students learned how to look at tables as another way to analyze the change between variables in a situation.  We were able to compare and contrast line graphs and tables. Students were also given questions that they can ask themselves when trying to decide the most appropriate graph to use in a number of situations.  When displaying change over time a line graph is most appropriate but when displaying the data for a single event a table should be used. Tables are most useful in helping us to more easily recognize patterns in numbers and analyze how one variable is changing with respect to another.

The world record we studied this past weekend involved a dog named Olive Oyl that made the record books for jumping 63 times when jumping rope in one minute.  The students were very eager to try and beat Olive Oyl’s record. While jumping rope for one solid minute didn’t sound very difficult the students quickly learned it was a hard task to complete. The most exciting part was when the teacher broke Olive Oyl’s record by jumping 97 times in one minute. Only one student was able to come close to beating the teacher’s record.

In analyzing the data we discovered that slow and steady wins the race. While those who started their jumps full speed quickly ran out of energy those that jumped at steady pace was able to jump almost non-stop the entire minute.  We also were able to identify the rate of change.  The slow steady jumpers were the ones who had a rate of change that was more predictable.  They averaged about 12-15 jumps every 10 seconds.

Please continue to log the daily pages read as we are very close to meeting our class goal. Thank you so much for another successful Saturday and I look forward to another two weekends of fun and learning!

– D. Polk

Breaking a New Record