Last year one of my students brought one of these empty water cooler jugs to class. There was no good reason for it - apparently he just found it somewhere and couldn't resist picking it up. I had to confiscate it because of course it was a major distraction. Over the course of the day students tried to use it as a drum, a kazoo, a bat, and, my personal favorite, a telescope. I, on the other hand, saw the tremendous mathematical possibilities in it and since that day have dreamed of my students using geometry and calculus to verify that it really does hold five gallons of water. Today my dream came true! After starting with an angled water glass and moving on to a wine goblet, my senior IB students used volumes of rotation to calculate the volume of the container, taking into account the cutout for the handle. It was a truly beautiful sight!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Allure of an Empty Water Jug
Last year one of my students brought one of these empty water cooler jugs to class. There was no good reason for it - apparently he just found it somewhere and couldn't resist picking it up. I had to confiscate it because of course it was a major distraction. Over the course of the day students tried to use it as a drum, a kazoo, a bat, and, my personal favorite, a telescope. I, on the other hand, saw the tremendous mathematical possibilities in it and since that day have dreamed of my students using geometry and calculus to verify that it really does hold five gallons of water. Today my dream came true! After starting with an angled water glass and moving on to a wine goblet, my senior IB students used volumes of rotation to calculate the volume of the container, taking into account the cutout for the handle. It was a truly beautiful sight!
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I'm a little disturbed that you refer to having teenagers calculating volume as a "dream come true" but well done nonetheless
ReplyDeleteI know...I fully admit to my nerdiness. At least most of the other math teachers who I talked to about this also thought it was a wonderful idea!
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