Day 9 of IMP - Creating Families - working with constraints

When I first looked at this activity I kind of thought it was just to do something a little different and have some cross-curricular work too. However, after helping the students work through the process of creating their families I appreciate more how this is intended to give a real-life context to working with inequalities. Making sense of words and phrases like at least, at most, between, less than, etc...

Sonya and I had created the charts for them to keep up with their family members easier and we also printed off a picture of a covered wagon that the students were able to decorate after they completed their work. This worked very well since some students finished much faster than others. However, I wish I had done a better job of making each group help each other after they finished created their own family. The group members who were responsible for the large families were (of course) always the last ones finished. I need to do a better job of reminding the group to help each other once they finish with the family that they were assigned.

I have also noticed that doing these types of problems make it so easy to talk about a real-life situation. For instance, before they left today I asked the students if anyone was interested in architecture or carpentry. I asked them if they were aware of the building codes that one must follow when building a new structure. I told them that they are constraints similar to the ones they had to follow today.

Above are some of the wagons where the students wrote the names and ages of their family members. Tomorrow I will be introducing the haybaler problem and I am a little concerned because I personally have not figured out the best way to approach the problem. Good thing it is a POW so I have some time to decide the best way to solve the problem (in my opinion). The students will probably figure out a much easier way on their own anyway!