Powerpoint from Toys MEA

1. TOYS
Deborah Kozdras
&
Christine Angel Danger
Thank-you to State Farm for their generous sponsorship of this workshop

2. Model Eliciting Activities
Collaborative
Learning
Peer
Tutoring
Cooperative
Learning
Model-Eliciting
Activities
Problem-Based
Learning
Active
Learning
Peer-Assisted
Learning
Deborah Kozdras Christine Angel Danger

3. Designed as “thought-revealing activities” for students (Lesh, et al, 2000)
“The problems that we face in our ever-changing increasingly global
society are multidisciplinary, and many require the integration of multiple
STEM concepts to solve them.” (Roehrig, Moore, Wang, & Park, 2012)

4. “The resultant student products reveal students’ thinking and provide both
teachers and researchers with a powerful lens for viewing students’
reasoning and concept development (Carlson, Larson, & Lesh,2003)

5. The models created include procedures for doing things and, more importantly, metaphors for
seeing or interpreting things (Mousoulides & English, 2011).

6. The activities are such that student teams of three to four express their mathematical model,
test it using sample data under the possible engineering constraints, and revise their
procedure to meet the needs of their client (Lesh and Doerr, 2003; Mousoulides et al. 2008).

7. Reading - Key Ideas and Details: Read closely
to determine what the text says explicitly and
to make logical inferences from it; . .
Reading - Integration of Knowledge and
Ideas: Integrate and evaluate information
presented in diverse media. . .
Speaking and Listening -
Comprehension and Collaboration:
Prepare for and participate effectively
in a range of conversations and
collaborations . . .
Speaking and Listening - Comprehension and Collaboration:
Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and
formats . . .
Speaking and Listening - Comprehension and
Collaboration: Evaluate a speaker’s point of
view, use of evidence . . .
Speaking and Listening – Presentation of Knowledge and
Ideas: Present information, findings, and supporting
evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning .
. .
Speaking and Listening – Presentation of
Knowledge and Ideas: Make strategic use of
digital media and visual displays of data to
express information and enhance
understanding of presentations.

9. Which Fidget Spinner Should We Buy?

10. Reading Passage 1
Hello Scholars,
I am in the process of buying fidget spinners for Angel Tree volunteers to gift to children in
need. Many children have said they wish for them and so we will need to buy a large
quantity of them. I need your help in choosing which fidget spinner I should purchase. I
have researched several toy wholesale stores in the area and created a data table to
display the information for you. I have included the price, style of fidget spinner, how fast
it spins, the company that makes the fidget spinner and what other businesses like mine
have said about the wholesale stores. I need you to come up with a procedure that will
help me in selecting the best fidget spinner for our volunteers to give to children.
All the information your team needs is located on the next page. Please write me a letter
with your list from worst to best fidget spinner that I should purchase and explain the
procedure at which you came to your results and include information that tells me how
you were able to separate the bad fidget spinners from the good ones. Please inform me
of which fidget spinner is your top choice!
Things to consider:
Style of fidget spinner- Is this fidget spinner going to get people to buy it? Is this similar to
what other stores are buying?
Spinning Speed- Are the revolutions per minute (rpm) high or low? How long will it spin
for?
Company- What are their reviews?
I look forward to hearing from you soon! I really appreciate your help!

11. 1. Who is the client for this problem?
2. Why does the client need our help?
3. Why is it important that the fidget spinner is
purchased?
4. Is there any other data you would add to the data
set that would help your group make a more
informed decision about which fidget spinners to
purchase?
5. How is your group going to "think like a business
owner" for this task?
6. What are the similarities and differences
between the fidget spinners?

13. • Which criteria are most important to your
client?
• How can you sort these from best to worst?
• What do you need to know and do in order to
find out which has the lowest price per fidget
spinner?

14. Dear Mr. Brown,
Our team,____________, has reviewed all the data
provided by your company. We have created a list
of fidget spinners in order from best to worst for
you to purchase for children. The order that we
chose is: 1._____________ 2._____________
3._____________ 4._____________
Additionally, based on the data provided, our team
believes that the "top choice" of the fidget spinners
for you to purchase is ___________.
The procedure we used to determine the order
was:
Sincerely,

15. Reading Passage 2
Hello Scholars,
Thank you for helping us to choose a fidget spinner to purchase as gifts
for children. We now know that we need to purchase 1340 fidget
spinners to give one to each of 1340 children.
How many of each type would we need to have enough fidget
spinners to give one each to 1340 children?
Use the data table to help us find out how many packages we need to
order. Our maximum budget for fidget spinners is $1400. If the cost of
the one you chose exceeds that amount, we will need you to
reevaluate the data and recommend one that is within our price range
so that we can purchase enough for all of the children.
I look forward to hearing from you soon! I really appreciate your help!
Sincerely,
Christopher Brown, Coordinator of Angel Tree Volunteers

16. Questions 2
How many fidget spinners does your client
need?
What is your clients budget?
What is your plan for deciding which fidget
spinners to recommend?

18. Letter Template 2
Our
team,_____________________________________
_____, has reviewed all the data provided by your
company. We have created a list of fidget spinners
in order from best to worst for you to purchase for
children. The order that we chose is:
1._____________ 2._____________
3._____________ 4._____________
Additionally, based on the data provided, our team
believes that the "top choice" of the fidget spinners
for you to purchase is ___________.
The procedure we used to determine the order
was:

19. Water Toys, Inc.
Tub Town, USA

20. Water Toys, Inc.
Reading Passage 1
My name is Mr. Floaty, and I own a store called
Water Toys, Inc. I would like to purchase a new tub
toy to sell in my store. I know many of you love to
play in the bathtub, so I thought you could help me
with this problem.
I am sending you a data chart of four tub toys I can
choose from. I placed check marks on the table to
show how each tub toy rated in each category.
Please write me a letter and tell me the order, from
best to worst, of which tub toy I should buy. I also
need you to explain the plan you used to rank the
tub toys.

21. Readiness Questions
• Who is the client in the letter? (Mr. Floaty, a
store owner)
• What is the problem that the client needs help
with? (He needs help choosing the best tub
toy to add to his store.)
• What do you need to include in your letter to
the client? (Students will include the ranking
for the tub toys from best to worst and the
procedure used to determine the ranking.)

23. Comprehension Questions
o What information is on the Data Chart? (The Data Chart includes
four types of tub toys and properties for each: floats, squirts, squeaks,
has suction.)
o Is there a category on the data chart that you think is more
important than the others?
o How will you decide which tub toy Mr. Floaty should buy?
o Why do you think that?
o How do you know if you have an answer to the question?
o Would your solution work in a different situation?
o Do you agree, or disagree with your classmates' ideas?
o Why, or why not?
o What do you need to include in your letter to Mr. Floaty?
(Students will include the ranking for the tub toys and the procedure
used to determine the ranking.)

24. Letter Template 1
Our team______________________________________,
thinks that the order of tub toys you should buy, from
best to worst, is
1.__________________________________________
2.__________________________________________
3.__________________________________________
4.__________________________________________
The procedure we used to come up with this answer is
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

25. Water Toys, Inc.
Reading Passage 2
Thank you so much for your interest in the tub toys I am
considering for my store. I can tell you gave your choices
a lot of thought.
I just received some new information about the toys.
Some of them have a safety feature built in. They change
color if the water is too hot! I have included a new data
chart with this information included on it.
Please write me another letter telling me your new
ranking for which tub toy would be best to buy. Let me
know if you had to change your procedure and how you
changed it.

27. • Reflection Questions 2
o What is the new problem the client needs help with?
(He has added the new information that some of the toys
have a safety feature to let you know if the water is too
hot.)
o What changes might you make to your procedure to
solve the problem?
o What do you need to include in the letter to the
client? (Students need to include the new ranking and
explain any changes to the procedure to determine the
ranking.)
o Can your procedure be used again if the store wanted
to buy another tub toy?

28. Our team, __________________________________,
thinks that the order of tub toys, from best to worst, is
1. ____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
We _______________ did/did not have to change our
procedure.
The changes we made were
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________

30. MEA Lessons