Like Terms Blog Post

We just finished up another Scimatics project, and this is my reflection post on it. This math project was called Like Terms, the math in question being polynomials, which are a type of algebra. The project was a bit different from previous math projects we had, because we got to choose our own groups, and even make our own driving question! I ended up in a group with Thomas and Noah, and right off the bat we knew we wanted to do something with Minecraft. We thought of Minecraft right away because we knew that all blocks in Minecraft are one cubic metre in size, and we thought about using the measurements from the blocks to make a polynomial. After some thinking, we came up with our driving question “How can we show how games involve polynomials?” To answer our question, we decided to make a sort of game within Minecraft where you build a structure and then calculate the perimeter. It took a while to actually build the arena and the structures, but it was still fun to do. Then we got around to the math part, and we calculated the perimeter for the two structures we created and made that into a polynomial equation, answering our driving question in the process. Here is some pictures of the math we did:

And here are some more pictures of the structures that we built:

Before I wrap up this blog post, I want to talk about the core competencies for this project, and how me and my group did on them. The first competency was the understanding and solving competency, where we had to show that we understood polynomials and like terms. I understood the math pretty well, and me and my group showed our understanding of the concept in our final project presentation, so we ended up getting an extending mark on this competency. The next competency was communicating and representing, which was about the quality of our presentation. We got an accomplished mark, because although our presentation was good, we didn’t practice presenting it, so it was a bit rough, and we also didn’t include any exponents in our presentation. Another competency we did really well on was the connecting and reflecting competency. This competency was about connecting mathematics to other areas, and having personalized and original work. We got extending in this because we had a pretty original idea, only one other group did something related to video games. The final competency was the applying and innovating competency, which was basically about if we used our class time efficiently or not. We got accomplished for this competency, because for the most part we were on task, but we did get distracted a couple times. In conclusion, I learned a lot in this project, but it was still really fun to do, because we got to make our own groups and driving question, which I hope we can do again sometime. That’s about it for this blog post, stay tuned for more!