Best Third Activity

Inspired by the squarest square, best halves...etc., I did an activity with "best third."

The major difference was that instead of a pre-made act 1 for engagement, I had kids come up to make their own "best third."

I did this at the end of one day.  I had them strategize in each group, and then each group had a representative that came up to draw what they believe to be the "best third."

Immediately after class, I threw these shapes on a word document, and photocopied it 2 per page.

The next day, each group had these to work with.  Their task is to prove and choose the best third based on evidence.

Here's some of their work:

Good conversations all around.

All the kids voted for Dylan... So now it's my turn to analyze the picture and give them an explosion of an act 3.

I used ImageJ to help me analyze the measurement -- making it more precise

I actually have never used the program before, but it only took me about 15 min to figure out how to use it.  Basically, I selected the areas I want, and it calculated the area.

All in good fun :)

I went through each shape and found that the students were actually correct!  Dylan was the closest one!