Week of March 23rd

I apologize for not posting in while, things have been a bit overwhelming lately.

Last week we began a unit over measures of central tendency and graph types.  For those wondering what measures of central tendency are they are mean, median, mode, and range.

Mean - average - find the sum of the numbers in the set and divide the sum by how many numbers are in the list.
Median - the middle value once the numbers are put in order.  If there are 2 numbers in the middle your median is the mean of those 2 values.
Mode - the number or numbers occurring the most.  A set of data can have 1, 2, or 3 modes.
Range - the difference in the largest and smallest data values in the set.

We have also discussed several ways of presenting data using graphs.
We have looked at:
- a frequency distribution table
- a line plot
- a stem and leaf plot
- a bar graph
- a histogram
- a scatter plot (Monday)

We have looked at how to create and read each graph type.

Wednesday, we will be having a test over the content mentioned above and review again volume and surface area.

Thursday, we will begin reviewing concepts we covered during the first semester to make them fresh on their minds before the STAAR test.  Our first round of testing will be March 30th and 31st with 7th grade Writing.  Math and Reading will be April 21st and 22nd.


Examples problems: (Bonus Questions - 3 points each - copy each question, work them, circle your final answer with its correct label if one is needed and turn them in by Friday, March 27th.)

1. Tyler walked a total of 4 kilometers by making 2 trips to school. How many trips will Tyler have to make in all to walk a total of 10 kilometers? Assume the relationship is directly proportional.

2. In a craft activity, students are making flowers using ribbon. Each student will make one flower and each flower requires 18 inches of ribbon. About how many meters of ribbon are needed for 32 students? Note that 1 meter equals about 1.09 yards.

A. 0.46
B. 14.68
C. 17.44
D. 526.69

3. Which coupon will save Gina more money on a toy rocket originally priced at $16?

Save 75% on any Space Race toy rocket

$10 off any Space Race toy rocket!

Week of March 2nd

I have to apologize, it has been a while since I have posted to this Blog.  February has been a busy month. We have spent 2 days taking a benchmark over writing, I have spent 4 days with students from Mance Park in Washington DC, among other things.  You can check out my Blog on our DC trip here if you are interested in that trip.  7th graders at Mance Park will have an opportunity to sign up for next years trip in May.

This week we will be finishing up surface area of rectangular and triangular prisms, cylinders, pyramids, and cones.  Some of these shapes have a formula that you can use, but I would rather them understand that to find surface area you just find the area of each face on the figure and add them together.  Here are some examples.

Example:     Rectangular Prism

Example:     Triangular Prism

Example:     Cylinder

Example:     Pyramid

Example:     Cone

Examples from Google Images.

Our schedule for this week will be:

Monday - Finish lesson from Friday and complete an assignment on Surface Area.

Tuesday - Test 5-1 Review - Topics:  Volume and Surface Area of Rectangular and Triangular Prisms, Cylinders, Pyramids, and Cones.

Wednesday - Math Benchmark Test

Thursday - Reading Benchmark Test

Friday - Test 5-1

March 9th - 13th - Spring Break

Bonus Question of the Week:

Copy the question, show you work, and turn it in by Friday, March 6th for 20 Bonus Points.

Part 1:

A company is deciding which box to use for their merchandise. The first box measures 8 inches by 6.25 inches by 10.5 inches. The second box measures 9 inches by 5.5 inches by 11.75 inches. Which box required more material to make?

Part 2:

If each box from the previous problem used material that cost $0.03 per square inch to make, how much does a company save by choosing to make fifty boxes of the smaller box in comparison to fifty boxes of the larger box?