Comments on: WCYDWT: Boat In The River

By: Don’t mean to burst your bubble | Reflections in the Why

Don’t mean to burst your bubble | Reflections in the Why — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 16:06:32 +0000

[…] a video of a small square sheet of bubble wrap being popped. Include a timer. Maybe a soundtrack, too. Play the beginning of a video showing a large square sheet of bubble wrap being popped.Â Have […]

By: Systems of linear equations | Overthinking my teaching

Systems of linear equations | Overthinking my teaching — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 02:09:53 +0000

[…] racing problems and static unknown value problems may well be what I find so compelling about Dan Meyer's escalator problem, and what several of my colleagues find so baffling and uninteresting about it. Also, these things […]

By: Relativity on an Escalator | Change in Potential

Relativity on an Escalator | Change in Potential — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:56:33 +0000

[…] about alternate approaches I recalled a Dan Meyer posting where he had created a video of himself walking up and down stairs and escalators.Â I think his intention was to use the video to get students to work with systems of equations, […]

By: So, the day has arrived. | Change in Potential

So, the day has arrived. | Change in Potential — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:37:01 +0000

[…] were MUCH better than the broomsticks I had been using). And just recently I incorporated a WCYDWT scenario of Dan Meyer’s regarding relative motion on an escalator as an introduction to relativity in my […]

By: Telling the full story of a number « Quantum Progress

Telling the full story of a number « Quantum Progress — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:18:16 +0000

[…] they can predict something. And I realized too late that we really have that with Dan Meyer’s boat in the river problem. If you don’t measure the time very precisely, by stopping the video and scrubbing to […]

By: Goal-less problems in AP Physics « centripetalworld

Goal-less problems in AP Physics « centripetalworld — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:29:20 +0000

[…] goal-less problems. Â (Thanks, Kelly!) Â For the first day of class, I turned Dan Meyer’s boat in the river video into a goal-less problem and told the kids to represent Dan’s motion going up the down […]

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:33:31 +0000

WOW. You are changing my teaching. I read a ton of your blog this summer, and as it’s my first year with the capability to show video in my room, I figured I’d jump right in. Just finished showing my first class this problem, and “electrifying” is exactly the right word. I’ve never seen students so excited. Amazing. Thanks.

By: Michael Phelps v. Morton Salt girl: The grudge match | Overthinking my teaching

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:32:14 +0000

[…] is a handsome enough guy (Show Appealing Faces) and his escalators problem has high-enough production values (Present Examples in High-Resolution Video). But that’s not […]

By: Christopher Danielson

Christopher Danielson — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 02:19:24 +0000

A friend and I have had many arguments about these house painting problems. She maintains that they are an application of the work equation. I maintain that the work equation is ridiculous and only good for these absurd problems; that instead when students bump against these problems (unavoidable in our Math Center curriculum, I’m afraid), we should encourage them to use whatever strategies make sense to them.

But if they don’t use the work equation on these problems, what is the point of having them in there? she asks.

“My point exactly,” I reply.

And around and around we go.

By: Christopher Danielson

Christopher Danielson — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 02:14:34 +0000

Trade secret. Got it.