Algebra: Air Travel, Google Drive, and Linear Relationships

This is an example of a post where we share something we have tried (or are thinking of trying) in one of our classes. I would love for you to comment (even if you don't teach Algebra) and give me some constructive feedback. I would also love for you to write your own post (we can help if you're not comfortable doing that) sharing something you have tried (or thinking of trying).

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Like pretty much anything good I do in my Algebra class, this is simply a slight modification of something someone else has created - in this case, Dan Meyer. Please go read his post - and the comments - for all the goodness.

But let me briefly summarize the activity here. Students go to United Airlines' website and select one-way, non-stop flights to a variety of destinations from Denver. They then collect some information about those flights, including time, distance and cost. They then create a time vs. distance graph and a cost vs. distance graph. We then talk about lines of best fit (just eyeball at this point of the course), come up with an equation in slope-intercept form, and then talk about what the slope means and what the y-intercept means in each graph, as well as why the time vs. distance graph appears to be a much better linear fit than cost vs. distance. (More discussion of that in Dan's original post if you're interested).

The modification I made from Dan's original idea was using Google Drive instead of Microsoft Excel, and having the students collect the information outside of class so we could use class time to discuss. So I gave them these directions and had them make a copy of this Google Spreadsheet, then share it back to me (this allowed me to copy and paste their data and come up with my own graphs with more data points than the 8 flights they had to do). I also had them print out their graphs so that it was easier to sketch a line of best fit.

My hope is that this would provide students with a reasonable real-world application of slope-intercept, allow them to work with some actual data that they collected, and allow us to discuss the meaning of the slope (rate of change) and the y-intercept in context.

What do you think?

1. Can you see using this in your Algebra classroom? Why or why not?
2. Is there anything you would change (add, remove, modify) to make this better or to extend it?
3. Can you think of other topics in Algebra 1 where we could do something similar with Google Drive/Data Collection/Graphing/etc?

21st Century Literacy

1) Which of the four pillars of  Literacy for the 21st Century connects with you the most?  Why?

2) Which one do you think you would need the most guidance with? Why?

Feel free to include links to resources in your response that may be helpful to other Connected Learner participants.

Below is the slideshow that we shared with you about 21st Century Literacy in LPS

What is this blog?

So, what exactly is this blog for? In some ways, that's up to you. What we envision is that it's a place to share interesting ideas that relate to some or all of the work you are doing in your Connected Learner's classrooms, and then have you comment and discuss. It's also a place to share what you are doing, both examples that are exemplary and things you've tried (or are thinking of trying) that perhaps don't quite feel right. We'll tag each post with the relevant team (e.g., Algebra, or US History 9, etc.) that we think it most applies to, but we hope that many of you will find all the posts interesting (we'll also tag some posts with "all" if it applies to everyone).

But that's our vision of what this blog is for, you may have different (better?) ideas of what would support the work you are doing, and you are welcome to take this wherever it leads. We want this to be a place for you guys to collectively be able to share and reflect on your teaching and the learning of your students.

Welcome.