Off To The Races
Last week we used the Ozobots again, but this time to collect data on how far the Ozobot would travel given a specific time, see lesson details here. Students would see how far an Ozobot would travel for 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 seconds and then construct a scatter plot of the data. This lesson is where we introduce lines of best fit, and equations of lines of best fit.
This lesson replaced one where we had students measure their height, arm span and head circumference and ask the question: "Is there a relationship between a person's height and arm span and a person's height and head circumference?". Students would measure their height, arm span and head circumference, create scatter plots, lines of best fit and equations of lines of best fit.
When we first thought of changing this lesson to using Ozobots, one of the questions I had was - "Which lesson will be better?" With the body measurements, I liked that the starting question had to do with relationships - "Is there a relationship..." Students had to think about how they would test to see if there was a relationship. They had to design an experiment, consider what data needed to be collected; how the data would be recorded; and the tools they would use to determine if there was a relationship. When it came to graphing, what type of graph would they use; what were the independent and dependent variables; and what scale would they use?
With the Ozobot lesson, I was beginning to second guess myself and worrying about if we were using the technology for the sake of using technology and would the students have the same learning experience with the Ozobots that they would with the other activity? I talked with Dianne and Debbie and we though, let's just do it and see what unfolds.
Well.... I am glad we did.... It worked out far better than I had anticipated. We had the students in pairs instead of groups of 4 and I wasn't disappointed in the depth of the conversation, which included:
This type of conversation happened in all of my classes amongst others. Another aspect that I really liked about this lesson was that we had students working in pairs instead of 4. When I compared working in pairs to working in groups of 4, there is always one person sitting on the sidelines in a group of 4. This way, both students had to be involved.
When students had to do the line of best fit and determine the equation of the line of best fit there were a lot of discussions on what was the meaning of the rate of change and the initial value. Why were some of the initial values different than 0 and what did that mean? Is it okay to have an initial value different than 0? We were also able to discuss methodologies for data collection, sources of error, how could we improve the experiment if we did it again. Most rates of change were around 3, some a little higher and some a little lower, but we had an opportunity to pick "Which Ozobot would win a race? How do we know?".
Unfortunately, we couldn't do the race in the same class, but we did take the students out to the foyer at school the next class to see which would win. We were able to have a discussion as to why the results were not the same as what we found during class.
Overall I really liked the activity, although we were not "coding" we were using technology that they think is fun and interesting to collect and analyse the data. It was so much more engaging that our previous activity for data collection. What is interesting, is that we did end up using last years data to create scatter plots, lines of best fit and equations of lines of best fit. So, in the end we were able to have good discussions on two sets of data that were collected by students.
This lesson replaced one where we had students measure their height, arm span and head circumference and ask the question: "Is there a relationship between a person's height and arm span and a person's height and head circumference?". Students would measure their height, arm span and head circumference, create scatter plots, lines of best fit and equations of lines of best fit.
When we first thought of changing this lesson to using Ozobots, one of the questions I had was - "Which lesson will be better?" With the body measurements, I liked that the starting question had to do with relationships - "Is there a relationship..." Students had to think about how they would test to see if there was a relationship. They had to design an experiment, consider what data needed to be collected; how the data would be recorded; and the tools they would use to determine if there was a relationship. When it came to graphing, what type of graph would they use; what were the independent and dependent variables; and what scale would they use?
With the Ozobot lesson, I was beginning to second guess myself and worrying about if we were using the technology for the sake of using technology and would the students have the same learning experience with the Ozobots that they would with the other activity? I talked with Dianne and Debbie and we though, let's just do it and see what unfolds.
Well.... I am glad we did.... It worked out far better than I had anticipated. We had the students in pairs instead of groups of 4 and I wasn't disappointed in the depth of the conversation, which included:
- How to record the distance - should they use the front, back or middle of the Ozobot as the reference?
- Should they use a start line?
- How do they know where to mark when the time is over?
- How to time the Ozobot: count up or count down?
- How to record the data: should they average?
- How to graph the data: should they have three separate graphs? Should it be one graph? Do they need to distinguish the trials?
Many groups struggled with independent and dependent variable. The following is a conversation between two students that the Instructional Coach observing in my classroom recorded:
S1: Do we average these out?S2: No, it’s a scatter plotS1: I’m not sure but I think this (distance) is dependent on that (time)S1: You can’t make time dependent on distanceS2: How much distance will it travel in this much time?S1: Distance is Y, Time is X Right??S2: I think so (goes and checks with another group)S2: I think time should be YS1: Why?S2: I don’t knowIIT Observation: Student is trying to visualize what the graph would look like if time were on the X axisS1: I don’t know, you chooseIIT Observation - S2: Goes to visit another groupS1: If I had it my way, I would put it on XS2: No, YS3: It’s on XIIT Observation: They decide to put time on X and Distance on YIIT: What changed your mind?S2: My friend
This type of conversation happened in all of my classes amongst others. Another aspect that I really liked about this lesson was that we had students working in pairs instead of 4. When I compared working in pairs to working in groups of 4, there is always one person sitting on the sidelines in a group of 4. This way, both students had to be involved.
When students had to do the line of best fit and determine the equation of the line of best fit there were a lot of discussions on what was the meaning of the rate of change and the initial value. Why were some of the initial values different than 0 and what did that mean? Is it okay to have an initial value different than 0? We were also able to discuss methodologies for data collection, sources of error, how could we improve the experiment if we did it again. Most rates of change were around 3, some a little higher and some a little lower, but we had an opportunity to pick "Which Ozobot would win a race? How do we know?".
Unfortunately, we couldn't do the race in the same class, but we did take the students out to the foyer at school the next class to see which would win. We were able to have a discussion as to why the results were not the same as what we found during class.
Overall I really liked the activity, although we were not "coding" we were using technology that they think is fun and interesting to collect and analyse the data. It was so much more engaging that our previous activity for data collection. What is interesting, is that we did end up using last years data to create scatter plots, lines of best fit and equations of lines of best fit. So, in the end we were able to have good discussions on two sets of data that were collected by students.
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