Let's Go Fly a Kite

Yesterday was the last day before April vacation, and I was at a loss as to what to do with my students. I knew there would be a critical mass missing from classes, and given the power my students have at retaining information over long stretches of time, I certainly couldn't begin new material. As with most other teachers at my high school, I had given an assessment on Thursday in order to close out the unit before break while still reaching as many students as possible.

When we return from break we'll be beginning work with "Special Quadrilaterals" (e.g. parallelograms, trapezoids, kites). So I had a stroke of brilliance on Wednesday night. I decided to have my students build kites to fly on Friday. This project would take up a 90 minute block of time well, as we could use an hour to build and a half hour to fly. And since it's a hands-on, artistic project. My students wouldn't be bored and itching to get out of their seats. Also, since we'll be talking about kites after break, and specifically about the diagonals in a kite, it's really good for my students to understand the diagonals as the frames of their kites.

So, during class on Thursday, I told my students what their project for the next day would be. I had them create lists of materials that they would need. I went to the dollar store that afternoon and got the supplies. And when class started on Friday, my students were ready to go.

My students impressed me yesterday. They were focused on their task. They used problem solving skills to think of the best way to create their kites. And when they finished, they looked around the room for other students to assist. Our time was both productive and fun.

When we brought our kites outside to fly, we were all disappointed that there was absolutely no wind. The students worked hard at trying to fly their kites. And when they wouldn't work, they tried to analyze the situation to see how they could improve their kite in order to get it up in the air. We had a couple semi-successful attempts, but overall, the flying didn't work out. The day was far from a failure, however.

The best part of the class was that the students were so excited about the project. In particular, I have one student, T., who doesn't do well with book work. Though he's brilliant, he has a difficult time seeing the point of working through problems in a book. (In a way I can understand that.) This student did an incredible job with this project. His kite would probably have been a great flier if we'd had any wind. And I truly understood that he appreciated this opportunity to showcase his talents when he said, "Ms. K, Thank you." At the risk of making a truly horrible pun, T. soared during this project.

Overall, this turned out to be a great day. The students got more math out of the day than they realize (they'll realize soon enough, though), and they had a great time. Today truly inspired me to do more hands-on projects leading into the material. I already try to do this, but having something more applicable-something that they can actually use, like a kite-is a great way to introduce mathematics as a part of their everyday lives.