Par for the Math Course
By:  Kelli Adrian

Project at a Glance :

Students will use perimeter and area to create a mini golf course hole that includes at least one half circle and one triangle and/or rectangle. This project will likely take one month. 

Driving Question:

How can we use area and perimeter of composite shapes to create the most epic mini golf hole ever?

Standards:

• 7.G.B.4 Know the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and use them to solve problems; give an informal derivation of the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle.
• ​7.G.B.6 Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume and surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed of triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, cubes, and right prisms.

Team / Culture Building:

• Creative Types ​
• Values Cards
• Hopes/Fears/Norms

Entry Event:

• Great Lakes Glow Golf - see if I can get funding from the Spring Lake Schools Foundation? Double J’s Resort(family owned, willing to work with you), Craig’s Cruisers Norton Shores(close by)

Stakeholders:

• The business (Galaxy Golf, Double J’s, Craigs Cruisers)
• Kids and Parents
• Landscaper & Contractor
• Civil engineer (bridges, etc?)

Empathy Building:

• Interview Stakeholders (Each class interviews a stakeholder, writes notes, and uses AI to report findings for other classes
• Stakeholders Map
• Empathy Map ​

• Students will interview parents/guardians
• Self-Reflection

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Know/ Need to Know Protocol
• Lessons on finding areas and perimeters of various shapes, leading into finding the areas and perimeters of composite shapes

• Interview Stakeholders (Each class interviews a stakeholder and writes notes and uses AI to report their findings for the other classes, students have to interview parents or guardians) 

Incubation:

• 100 Ideas​​

• $100 Test
• Crazy 8's​​

 Checking in:

• Daily/every other Homework (2-3 problems)
• Daily Check-ins will be simple and quick

• In order to help students understand the problem, I asked them to write solutions to the "Anti-Problem". 
• Hashtag
  
• Emoji
  
• 1-5 Ranking
  
• Pluses and Deltas
• Stop, Start, Continue
  
• The Maitre D'
  

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Solution Building:

• The Ideation protocol was a natural fit to run with this group because they couldn't narrow down their ideas, and their headings organically merged into one outstanding one.​​

Critique and Revision: 

• Students reevaluated their narrowed down ideas. A few teams rerouted after reviewing the Stakeholders and Empathy Maps. 

Authentic Audience:

• Nurse Jen​
• Students

Solution Examples:

• A mnemonic device and prototype to care for patients.​

• Color coding medication bottles.​

• Speak to their age - a system to communicate effectively with a wide range of age groups.
• A robot translator to aide medical professionals.

Click here for teacher's full plan.
Reflection and Feedback:

• The winning team won a 2-foot tall ANATOMY trophy and bragging rights!

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

​Kelli Adrian teachers 7th and 8th grade math at Spring Lake Middle School in Spring Lake, MI.

                      “PBL allows me to assign meaning and context to the                               strict standards that math has. I am able to finally                                  answer the ‘When will we ever use this?’ question.”