Tuesday, March 10th: Mammal March Madness and Dream House Design

Today, students began filling out their brackets for "Mammal March Madness", our battle royale that serves as the reason and the hook for our study of adaptation and evolution. Students spent part of today researching the mammals involved so they could complete their first round picks. Their homework is to finish choosing winners for the entire first round, or two out of four groups in the bracket. Tomorrow, they will finish off their brackets and we'll check in on the game's website to see whose made it through and whose bracket is busted! (If you're interested in learning more or playing along at home, check out this article from the Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-mammal-march-madness-brotman-talk-0309-20150307-column.htmlhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-mammal-march-madness-brotman-talk-0309-20150307-column.html

To further our study of perimeter and area, students are to design the floor plan for a dream house. We'll use this design for future investigations where students will be problem solving with area, perimeter, cost, and finally the area of triangles. Later in the week, students will be taking their first area/perimeter assessment via Hopscotch, an app that allows students to build games and graphics using blocks of code. This dream house is an opportunity to practice the same skills without the iPad. Their homework is to finish their dream house design and answer the questions on the half-sheet of paper that goes with it.