Sixth Graders Close Out Year with Exploration of Geometry

Sixth graders are closing out their year in math with an exploration of geometry. “There are several fun aspects of having geometry at the end of the year,” explains Cam Yuen-Shore, math teacher and director of special projects. “First is its ability to weave in units from previous chapters. And second is its natural bent towards real-world application and hands-on activities.” At the beginning of this week students participated in the “Flat Snowperson Challenge,” where they were tasked with creating a string of tangent circles where the area doubled from one circle to the next. “This task provided students with a clear goal, but with more than one path to achieve that goal,” adds Cam (as he’s known to his students). “There were students that started in the middle of the paper and others who started in the corner. Any task that allows students to experience a multitude of problem-solving challenges and successes in 50 minutes is fulfilling the goal of a challenging academic environment in a welcoming, inclusive community. Watching students tackle a problem that requires three or four different skills that they did not have in August is the most engaging type of assessment for a teacher at the end of May!” MORE PHOTOS