Summary of Lesson
This lesson can be used the pre-algebra student up through Calculus. With a pre-algebra class, all students enter the same weight regardless of there actual weight, and complete any distance. Students will return the iPod to class and the data will be synced to www.mikeplus.com for retrieval later. After all the data has been gathered students can plot the distance vs. calories burned and attempt to find the correlation. Students willl then develop a mathematical model for the data. Students will make predictions based on their analysis and then will make one last workout and see if their new data agrees. As the age/mathematic ability level of your students increase, you can start to let students either put in random weights or give students predetermined rates in given intervals (perhaps start 100 lbs and increase by 5 for each subsequent student). Students will then make a prediction based on a weight they have not used. All the students will then change their iPod to that weight and see if their prediction was correct. You also can begin this lesson by giving students data the teacher has collected on a few runs of varying length, and then have them move to differentiating between weights.
Length of Lesson
Materials Required
Expected Learning and Results
Linkage to standards/21st Century Skills
One of the major shifts in mathematics education over the last few years has been a new emphasis on statistics and data. This lesson will allow students to use data they have gathered to make prediction about future events. This is applied mathematics at its best, using math to model observed data and to predict future outcomes.
NCTM Standards on Statistics and Data Collection.
http://standards.nctm.org/document/appendix/data.htm
First published on Apr 30, 2007.
