PLP # 5: Three Act Math

This week I continued studying three act math activities and wanted to take a crack at composing one myself. I really loved perusing whenmathhappens.com and the Dan Meyer lessons. I appreciate how there is a real-world connection and excitement embedded in these lessons. I found myself particularly drawn to the lessons that incorporated sports as I am a bit of a fanatic myself. The two that really stuck out to me were King Clutch that focused on ratios (https://whenmathhappens.com/2014/01/18/king-clutch/), and Paul Sturgess that focused on fractions(https://whenmathhappens.com/2014/04/17/paul-sturgess/). I composed a 3-act math lesson based on my beloved New York Yankees and comparing two numbers. I would envision this for a third-grade class. This is an outline, and I haven’t put together the videos just yet. 

Act 1:

I will show a video of two Aaron Judge home runs—one short home run and one long home run. The question I would look to answer is how much farther did the second home run go than the first?

Act 2:

What information do we need? We need the length of both home runs. Home run 1 went 375 feet and home run 2 went 495 feet. 

Act 3:

Show a second video that includes the MLB Statcast numbers of each home run’s distance and the difference between the two (120 ft.) 

Standards:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NBT.A.2 – Fluently add and subtract within 1000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.

 

Further reflection:

As I said in the beginning of this post, I love the excitement and engagement these lessons bring. They seem like such a good way to liven up a math class. There are so many benefits that I can think of for this structure. I’ll start with a benefit for the teacher! It can be daunting and a little tedious to compose a math lesson, but I was genuinely excited to compose a lesson that was centered around one of my childhood obsessions. I know this would translate into excitement of teaching this as well. That’s good for everyone. I also know that it doesn’t have to be baseball or sports that’s used. It would be great to construct one of these lessons after getting to know the class a bit and seeing where their interests lie and incorporating that. The possibilities are endless!

Comments

  1. Ana J SpencerJune 16, 2021 at 7:35 PM

    I truly believe that as an educator there will be many times in which we will be doing exciting and engaging activities entwined with other subjects or structures which enrich the learning we provide for our students. I love baseball and the Yankee are my favorite team! Its truly important as educators for us to always find a way to engage and excite our students to develop a love for learning and to also understand what we are teaching. Awesome activity!

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