Playing Catch Up
is a modern update of Tortoise and Hare. Sportscaster Rich wears a suit and
plays the role of Hare. Wide receiver Julio surprisingly plays the role of
Tortoise, but only because the magic of video has slowed him to half speed.
Who will win this Des-race?
Students predict when (if ever) Rich catches half-speed Julio. We invite them to consider how graphs, tables, and equations provide different kinds of information, and are useful in different ways for making this kind of prediction.
The part of the lesson that excites us the most is the reveal, which again takes advantage of our new video tool in Activity Builder. Students watch the finish of the race, and see whether/when Rich cases Julio.
We do not tell students the answer (and neither should their teacher)!
Instead, we give them the video evidence and invite discussion and argumentation. If less than 80% of classroom discussions of this screen offer the opportunity—the need—to discuss Zeno’s paradox, then the Friday Fave will eat its Desmos sunglasses.
Not only do we delay feedback on the correctness of students’ work, we use the moment of giving feedback to spur further conversation.
Give this activity a whirl with your algebra students and report back on how it goes.