Thursday, September 11: SMART=WORK, CSI: The Nose Knows

Today, students reviewed the Elements of Good Group Work that we started collecting yesterday during our group challenges. Students then worked in groups of 3 to solve open-ended questions in which they would have to defend and back up their decisions with math. Would you rather make $300/week or $7.00/hour? Which taxi service would you choose in different situations? Students worked together and kept everyone involved sharing strategies along the way. Tonight they will struggle with 3 problems for which drawing a picture or making a chart will make the problem easier to solve. It's not necessary for them to solve everyone, but to make sure they draw out ways to show what's being described in the problem, and doing their best to work out the answer.

In science, we reviewed last night's crime scene and talked about how building a case with evidence is like supporting an inference with observations. Students practiced with the vocabulary for this unit using a set of online flashcards on Quizlet (under the 'mattlunt' collection) and assorted games associated with the set of flashcards. Tonight's homework is to create their own 2-column Observation/Inference Chart for the next crime scene: The Nose Knows.