First Day of Project Presentations

Today the geometry game projects were due. I collected all projects from the kiddos and started the groups on their presentations. I expected to get through all of the groups in both classes because I honestly expected the groups to stand up, explain their game, show how to play it for a few minutes, then sit down.

Oh how I was wrong! In both classes we only got to see one group present! Not because it was terribly bad or something really wrong happened, but because both groups were awesome! My first hour, Tommy and Howard, used my projector to display their board. Then using the Nerf Gun I purchased a few nights ago, their game had a pretty simple concept:

What was really great about Tommy and Howard's presentation however, is that shooting Nerf darts at a board wasn't the whole thing. Oh no, they made an entire review game out of it (score for us teachers!). They split the class up into two teams and made people face off on geometry questions from the entire year. If you answered correctly, you could shoot a dart at the board and try to score some points for your team.

Obviously this went on all hour because they had enough questions and the class was reviewing for the final in the process! I never told the boys to do this, they just decided to. It rocked.

My second class of the day is always a little more interesting than my first hour. I struggle on a daily basis to control them and they are somewhat notorious in the school for having behavioral issues. Today with them however, you would have never guessed that.

One group of girls decided to put water balloons on a styrofoam board and throw darts at it. Great idea because they had different sized water balloons to account for geometric probability. Also a great idea because it was different and we could go outside to do their presentation:

What was also awesome about this activity, is that it kept these particular 9th graders entertained for the entire hour. The girls brought enough water balloons for everyone to go several times:

Ms. Pint even got a chance to throw a dart or two:

And of course, when there were extra water balloons left at the end of class, Ms. Pint got hit with not one, not two, but three water balloons! I wasn't mad however, because I was also pelting my students with water balloons so it was not unprovoked :)

All in all, a very good first day of presentations so I am excited to see what tomorrow brings!