Motivating Mathematical Ideas Using Sitcoms and Movies Scott Adamson, Ph.D. Milos Podmanik

The Office Intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GXjAMnv1zs

Session Goals Share ideas for motivating mathematical thinking and problem solving. Enjoy the brilliance of the creators of The Office! Reveal how conceptual understanding can lead to procedural fluency and proficient problem solving. Be entertained by famous scenes from The Office! Possibly…be challenged to dig deeper into the mathematical meaning of familiar ideas. Laugh and have fun!

Season 5 Episode 12 – Prince Family Paper No youtube version of this clip

What????!!!! Simplify: 4𝑥 2 Michael Scott: Let's see if I can help. Ohhh. Oh, math! That's not so hard. Ok. You have four of these. Little girl: Right. Michael Scott: Ignore the parentheses right? Why is this little two so small? It- it's weird. You just-- don't- - you just go by the x. The x means times, so that means four times x two, what is double four? Little girl: Eight. Michael Scott: Right! Excellent. Way to go! Nice. Grandma: Oh. Don't put that...

Funny Song Clever Rhyme This formula Tricks and Gimmicks Another formula That formula Mnemonic

Average Rate of Change Constant Rate of Change Problem Solving Proportional Reasoning Real-world contexts Arithmetic and Multiplicative Comparisons Idea of Function Meaning of Arithmetic Mean Interpreting and Analyzing Graphs

Season 5 Episode 9 – The Surplus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWfrMMNeK2k

Does Good Math Mask Understanding? Compare the fractions: 7 8 6 7 49 48 >

Does Good Math Mask Understanding? Compare the fractions: 7 8 6 7 42 48 42 49 > >

Season 5 Episode 13 – Stress Relief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmb1tqYqyII

How many is that per hour? 1 minute 1 minute 60 copies of 1 minute… 60 copies of 100 beats 100 beats 100 beats In 60 minutes or 1 hour, there are 6000 beats!

How many is that per second? 1 minute 100 beats 1 minute 100 beats In 1 second there are 100 60 ≈1.67 beats!

Season 5 Episode 13 – Stress Relief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmb1tqYqyII

Season 9 Episode 4 – Work Bus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpM90vEn8_g

Unpack the mathematical thinking/reasoning! How much time to spare? Pie shop closes at 5:00 pm 5:00 pm is “20 minutes from now” Pie shop is 13 miles away Traveling 55 MPH Unpack the mathematical thinking/reasoning!

It could sound something like this… What does 55 MPH mean? Therefore, in it takes 1 55 of an hour to travel 1 mile. So, we need 13 copies of 1 55 of an hour since the distance is 13 miles and each mile will take 1 55 of an hour. 13 copies of 1 55 is 13∙ 1 55 = 13 55 ≈0.2364 hours

It could sound something like this… 13 copies of 1 55 is 13∙ 1 55 = 13 55 ≈0.2364 hours There are 60 minutes in one hour and we have less than 1 hour…about 0.2363 hours so that is equivalent to 0.2364∙60 or about 14 minutes. We know that the current time is 20 minutes until 5:00…and it will take 14 minutes to arrive…so there are 6 minutes to spare. Assumptions…..

Season 9 Episode 4 – Work Bus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpM90vEn8_g

Take Aways Share with a person next to you one thing you might take away from this session.

Math Teaching Practices Establish mathematics goals to focus learning. Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving. Use and connect mathematical representations. Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse. Pose purposeful questions. Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding. Support productive struggle in learning mathematics. Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

Thank you! s.adamson@cgc.edu @getrealmath www.getrealmath.wordpress.com milos.podmanik@cgc.edu