Schedule (Synapse)

This is the schedule for the June 25-27 session at Synapse School in Silicon Valley.

I will post the schedule for the August 7-9 session at Atrium School near Boston when it becomes available.

◊ This is a tentative schedule, based on my best estimate of how long things take. Topics may move or vanish.

◊ Because of the cumulative nature of some of the work, it is important to attend everything.

◊ We will start on time every day.

◊ Mini-breakfast: 8:30 a.m. School day: 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Morning:

Polyomino Perimeter: a discovery lesson connected to many algebra topics

Welcome and Introductions

Story tables: powerful representation of order of operations and equation-solving (with Shira Helft)

Stairs and Slope: geoboard lessons

Afternoon:

Electronic graphing: Stairs, Designs

Modeling with Graphs and Tables: "real world" connections, linear vs. non-linear cases

Lab Gear 1: introduction to algebra manipulatives, the area model

Morning:

Letters and Postcards: linear inequalities

Lab Gear 2: perimeter, combining like terms; factoring

Difference of squares

Afternoon:

Lab Gear 3: minus, equations, signed numbers

Signed Numbers game

Morning:

The McNuggets problem: a rich number-based problem

Function Diagrams: parallel axes representation of functions

Lab Gear 4: perfect squares trinomials

Afternoon:

Lab Gear 5: fractions, minus in the corner piece, completing the square

Walking graphs

Wrap-up and closing: evaluation, reflection, implementation