Comments on: What Won’t Work: Harvard’s Movie Math

By: Ross Isenegger

Ross Isenegger — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:52:19 +0000

The classic “In the Navy” and Ma and Pa Kettle clips could be useful to explore place value. I would be interested in whether students could create similar spurious arguments with different numbers.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:48:06 +0000

This is somewhat unrelated but relates to WCYDWT. I found this video and thought it could be used in someway. Ideas?
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1764765

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:21:28 +0000

Oh PS Aaron, that's a much better link than the one that inspired this post and I think your criticism (that these still don't ask much of students) is right on the money.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:12:00 +0000

Nothing I've seen in trackbacks, comments, or my own reading. Except this maybe.

By: Darren Draper

Darren Draper — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:06:33 +0000

Dan,

Your WCYDWT? series is fantastic.

Do you know of other teachers that have followed your lead on this by asking similar questions of their readers in subjects other than math?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:34:37 +0000

Donna and Fred Roberts took the movie clips a step further a couple of years ago when they put together the Math and the Movies site here: http://www.mathbits.com/MathBits/MathMovies/ResourceList.htm . Each of the clips is accompanied by a worksheet that at least does explore the math featured in the clip. Unfortunately I think the problem with many of these worksheets is the same as the problem with many textbooks – not enough thinking involved.

I have used these movie clip sites as a jumping off point similar to the what can you do with this series. My favorite is the Abbott and Costello clip from In the Navy that I had no trouble turning into a 1+ hour discussion and investigation of place value for some 8th graders.

Movie clips can have the same great effects as your pictures, but the key is to hook the students in with the clips and then roll the kids into taking a deeper look into whats going on behind the scenes.