Logic Puzzles (1-2) (3-5) (6-8)

Okay, I admit, logic puzzles aren't exactly math lab in its purest form, but they're still cool. Even the 1st and 2nd graders got a taste in their math block. No writing, no predicting, no investigative questions, just x's and dots and pure 100% logic.

Binary Birthday Bracelets (3-5) (6-8)

Blog by Ashlee

Introduction: We are looking at another numbering system. We have a base 10 system. That means we have 10 numbers in our system. We looked at a base 5 system. But, our main focus is a base 2 system, which is called binary.

Birth date code: 

1 = dark blue beads

0 = lavender beads

Dividers = black beads

Teacher note: We used our birthday information in the form of MM/DD/YYYY then converted each of the three numbers to binary. Different color beads were used to represent 1's, 0's, and dividers. 

Spoons (3-5)

Blog brought to you by Julia

We are making boats and seeing how many spoons will fit in it. Then we have a plastic tub with water in it. We are going to put metal spoons in our boat (made of one sheet of 30 cm x 30 cm aluminum foil) and see if it sinks or floats.

My prediction is 19. I changed my prediction to 23 because of my friend. I changed my prediction again to 63 because of my friend. I got 38.

Floating Bears (6-8)

Blog entry brought you by Sasha:

We got a 30 cm x 30 cm foot of aluminum foil and tried to make a rectangular boat that will hold the most plastic bears. The point of this is to see what ratio of height to width to length will be the best at holding plastic bears.

Prediction: My prediction is that the sides should be an inch tall and that it should be 3/4 as wide as it is long. I think it will hold about 40 bears.

Assumptions:
- Everyone uses a 30 x 30 x 30 cm piece of foil
- All sides must be square (rectangular)
- Only use big bears

Boat Dimensions:
height = 5 cm
length = 22 cm
width = 22 cm
volume = 2420 cm3

Based on Emma's, I'm changing my prediction to 150.

Results: It held 209 bears and 25 spoons.

Experiment #2 (try 2)

We're not going to use bears anymore, because they're too light. We're going to rebuild our boats and only use spoons.

Boat #2 Dimensions:
length = 17 cm
width = 17 cm
height = 7 cm
volume = 2023 cm3

I made the sides higher because the last one sank because the water went over the sides.

Prediction: I predict it will hold 60 spoons.

"We've used ALL the bear counters. What do we do now?"