Day Three at DES (Research Day)

Today I did not go into DES but instead remained on the Proctor campus and completed 3 hours of research and related errands.  I spent the first portion of the morning reading different chapters in Yardsticks and discovering many of the different stages of development and growth in a child's life, focusing primarily on first and fourth grade age groups.  I wrote down notes in my personal observation journal and will be paying extra close attention to the fourth graders tomorrow to see if I, myself, can notice any of their specific character traits or social habits.

For the rest of the morning, I spent my time creating a hands on math problem that dealt with measuring out different quantities of ingredients using the customary measurement system. It is a problem where we will be compiling a yogurt and fruit parfait, using strawberries, blueberries, granola and honey in layers.  I am going to lead a Math Station one of the upcoming fridays during which I will be presenting my math problem and corresponding questions to my groups. I wrote down ideas in my journal, and gathered a list of possible test ingredients and possible measurement sizes.  Next, I took a little trip to the local Hannaford in New London where i picked up some blueberries, strawberries, and yogurt to test out my activity (honey and granola compliments of the Proctor dining hall).  After testing  out my ideas I came up with a potential problem:

Yogurt Parfait

1) 1/4 cup of yogurt (vanilla or plain)

2) 2 tablespoons of granola

3) 1/8 cup of quartered strawberries

4) 1/8 cup of blueberries

5) 1 teaspoon of honey

6) repeat steps on through 4!

I then came up with some discussion questions for my groups to figure out while munching.  I based these on similar questions from a story we read about scaling and size in geometry on Monday:

Questions

1) If you were to make this recipe for everyone in your class, how much would u multiply each ingredient by?

2) What would be the individual ingredient measurements after multiplication?

3) If you wanted to share a SINGLE serving with one of your friends, what would you do to split the recipe in half? What are the measurements?

I am so excited to get back to DES tomorrow where i will be observing Morning Meeting in Miss Blessing's classroom! I missed being at DES today, but I am ready to bring back my newly acquired knowledge from Yardsticks and to share my yogurt masterpiece! DES ROCKS!