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math 2014
Shodor > SUCCEED > Workshops > Archive > math 2014

Today the class briefly looked at probability to review the ideas from the previous day. Next the students learned about visualizing perimeter and area with an applet using tables and chairs, then they did this with the shape explorer applet. The students analyzed each situation and attempted to create an algorithm for varying situations that could help calculate the perimeter or the area of a variety of shapes. The students then moved on to using a coordinate axis with a maze solver game and looked at using coordinates and lines as constraints in navigating a field of obstacles. The students then learned about comparing fractions and deriving algorithms to find fractions that would be numerically in between two different fractions. Next, they analyzed forest fire simulators based on probabilities. They started by analyzing simulations that used probabilities in the vertical in horizontal directions and explored the effect of consecutive probabilities compounding the results. The students then analyzed a model that relied on forest density and wind to determine how the fire spread, and finally they analyzed simulations where probabilities determine spread vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, and compared the results to the original model.