Cubic

Problem of the Week: Cubes

I am continually impressed by the variety of learning strategies students use to complete tasks.  I confess that I am still guilty of trying to impress upon them the way that is most comfortable and understood by me, and not necessarily by them.  Today's math class reminded me of this fact.

Today was the second time I ran this exercise, but this time was with a group of older students.  The task was to build a simple cube and I gave them only a piece of paper.  We began with some basic review (activation of prior knowledge) and some gentle cues as to what sorts of supplies they would need.  The knowledge was in place, but the real surprise was in the application.

One student completely surprised me.  Not normally known for his/her effective task execution skills, the student completed well before everyone else and completed the task with very little time to waste.  The student followed a different strategy than I had envisioned, yet the end product was brilliant.  In fact, only one student actually completed the task in the manner I would have guessed.

Many students cut out individual pieces and then reassembly the cube with tape.  Others constructed the cube from a couple pieces of paper while others had great difficulty in knowing where to start.

In sum I thought this to be a brilliant activity to learning where some of my students excelled.  I also learned--rather quickly--of some of their weakness and am currently thinking of ways to tweak this exercise for future use.  I also really loved that the end goal was not the traditional assignment submitted with words on paper; it was a thing which was built with their own hands.