Page 159 - 1994

Trouble-Shooting Math class gather facts and opinions of students

How many people in grades 9-12
Sreshm an Mary Wiley m et an exit outcom e
smoke marijuana? How many
of being able to com m unicate m athem atical
students in these grades have had
skills with this project. She displays her chart
sexual intercourse? How many people
on if students thought their parents should be
in grades 9-12 drink alcohol, and how
accountable when their children com m m it a
much is consumed? These questions
crime.
were among the many asked by Linda
Hayek’s and Cindy Troyer’s Trouble-
Shooting Math classes. After the
students developed the questions that
they wanted to ask, Hayek compiled
the different topics and formed
surveys to be distributed during
advisement. Of the 16 advisements
that took part in this experiment, any
particular sheet of questions went to
four advisements.
After the surveys were returned, the
math students tallied the results onto a Sophom ore Ryan Stawniak chose to ques­
tion how many students in grades 9-1 2 smoked
chart or graph. “We had to do a report
marijuana, and where these students acquired
about it, and then we had to get up in
it. Stawniak received an A for his hard work.
front of the class and give a speech,”
Sophomore Ryan Stawniak said.
Stawniak researched how many people Survey
smoked marijuana in grades 9-12.
Says
“The whole point of the unit was to
get kids to communicate using math
and to be so interested in the numbers
that it would motivate them,” Hayek
said. She believed that this goal was How Often Do You
well met. “The kids took it seriously,
and I was real impressed.” Drink?
Along with using their math skills,
some students used this project to pass
one of the exit outcomes that students 52% — Never
in the class of 1997 and after had to
14% — Once or twice a year
pass. In order for this project to be
11 % — Once a month
accepted as an exit outcome of being
able to communicate math, the student 21% — Most weekends
had to meet all aspects. Twelve out of 2% — Five or more times a week
28 students in Hayek's class would
have passed the graduation standards,
but many were upperclassmen and
therefore these standards did not Do You Smoke?
apply. The upperclassmen received
grades for their work. 9th graders — 6%
Stawniak felt that this project was
worth while and should be continued 10th graders — 23%
in the next years. “It was pretty 11th graders — 35%
interesting because you could see how
12th graders — 40%
many people do (smoke marijuana),"
Stawniak said. Hayek also agreed that Overall — 25%
the unit was a success. “People need
to be able to read numbers, whether
it's in a magazine or raw numbers out
of a survey or a chart and make sense ESho is sexually active at Ralston Trouble-Shooting Math project.
out of it and be able to discuss it with High School? was the question This project paralleled the Elem en­
somebody else,” Hayek said. that Freshm an Megan Kucera tary Analysis project on govern­
WENDY HUNTINGTON asked th e s tu d e n ts fo r her m ent spending in past years. Math SuStu&qA.