Algebra lesson takes center stage at Dawes

Jared Wadell is not a theater teacher, but there he stood, on the auditorium stage at Dawes Middle School, explaining the day’s algebra lesson to his eighth-grade students. For this production, students would be the stars and their props would be motion sensors.

Wadell and his fellow algebra teacher, Marta Bukowski, used a lesson involving motion sensors to help students gain a deeper understanding of the idea of rate of change, or speed. In linear situations, the rate of change becomes visible as the slope of the line when it is graphed. A common form of linear equation is y = mx + b. In this equation, "m" is the slope; “b” is the y-intercept; “y” is distance; and “x” is time.

That may sound confusing for those who haven’t stepped inside a math classroom recently. To put it simply, and in the context of this lesson, the students would be measuring their speed as they walked away from a motion sensor - for example, one meter per second.

“Yesterday I gave you sort of an intro into this lesson. Today you’re really going to work with this equation,” Wadell told his students in the classroom before they walked to the auditorium, where they joined Bukowski’s class.

Six motion sensors were set up on the auditorium stage. Students worked in groups of four. One student began in front of the motion sensor and walked backwards at a steady rate toward the back of the stage. The other three students monitored the screen of a Chromebook, which was plugged in to the motion sensor and displayed a slope graph when the student was finished walking.

The groups then huddled up throughout the auditorium and discussed their findings. Wadell and Bukowski also gave each group a notecard with a slope equation that had the “y” value (distance) provided. Students had to calculate the other values necessary to arrive at that answer.

It was a day of learning that took an abstract concept - the slope of a line - and translated it into an everyday activity - walking.

“I was happy with how it went today - it went even better than I thought it would,” Wadell said. “The students were very engaged.”

Bravo!

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