MATH FAIR!

Frog Catchers!

Imagine you and your friend are frog catchers. You work as a team but also compete against each other to get the ULTIMATE FROG. They are a rare breed and are bright red in colour. They are known to contain a special chemical on their skin which can cure many common diseases. There is only one of these special frogs out of every seven frogs in our pond. The yellow frogs are your common frogs but they protect the special frog by making a barrier around it. You and your partner must capture all the yellow frogs before you can get the red one. The partner who catches the red one gets the reward offered by the MUN medicine department so you want to be the one to catch it. The only thing is you have to take turns with your partner when catching the frogs because you can only hold one or two at a time (they are very slippery). Can you figure out a way to get the red frog?

This problem contains a few mathematical concepts. The most obvious one being number operations. The students must use subtraction skills to think about how many frogs will be left. For example if there were 4 frogs left they need to figure out how many would be left if they took 1 vs how many would be left if they took 2. Another math concept would be identifying pattens. In order to be successful in catching the red frog the student could find the common patterns. We noticed that the person who went first got the red frog more often and if you have a chance to leave your partner with 2 yellow and the red frog you will always capture the red one. 

I think the class enjoyed our presentation. They seemed to have fun and often wanted to play multiple times. The only downside was that each person needed a partner to play and everyone in the class seemed to venture around the math fair solo. I often had to be the other frog catcher and I had lots of practice so it was a little unfair. Many of our classmates complimented us on our presentation set-up as well, which comes to show you don't have to spend a bunch of money to make an appealing, fun math fair problem. 

In terms of changing anything I would have had more frogs to challenge the students even further. We had extensions but they were not harder then the initial problem, just a different way to do it. You would not necessarily have to do this in an elementary classroom but I am thinking in terms of our own class. I also would have worded the problem differently in an elementary classroom. I would use the story above instead of just telling them the "rules". I noticed as well when I was the facilitator that it was really hard not to tell my classmates the strategy involved. I would ask them and they usually had an answer but I would often chime in with my own thoughts as well instead of asking "Can you think of anymore?".

As I was circulating the room I noticed myself choosing projects that I assumed I could be successful in completing. I would often wonder if I "got it right" but some of them like "Gopher Holes" had multiple answers which made me remember is not all about being right or wrong. 

I would love to do a math fair some day with my own students. I think it's a great way to learn and practice mathematical concepts in a fun, engaging way. I'm a big fan!

Just thought this was funny