Stupid activity of the week for our kids (this is for 6th grade):
- Select an object. (He chose a book.)
- Measure the dimensions of the object
- Calculate the surface area and volume.
- If you were to place this object into a cylindrical mailing tube, what should be the dimensions of the tube?
- What about a triangular prism?
- Rectangular prism?
- What are the surface areas and volumes of these boxes?
- Determine which of these boxes fits your object best.
- Explain why.
- BUILD THE BOX!!
- Time required: 90 minutes, minimum.
- Educational value (0-10): 2.
- Opportunity cost (cost of time wasted which could have been spent doing
something useful, instead of cutting and taping cardboard) (0-10): 9.
- Teacher's perception of the "fun" value of project (0-10): 9.
- Students' perception of the "fun" value of project (0-10): 0.
- Potential student frustration level when the cardboard doesn't cut and the tape doesn't stick (0-10): 8.
- Requisite parent participation level when frustrated kid wastes an hour
and a half on a dumb-&^% and pointless assignment building a box,
and parent gets exasperated by the time wasted and takes over (0-10): 6.
Addendum: Apparently, this got worse. In class today, they had to make up a story about where they were sending the box!
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