Unit 3 - Do Bees Build It Best?
I chose to post unit 3 of this year because I felt that in this unit we came to a very concrete conclusion, I also felt that I worked really hard on it, more then other units because it was challenging.
Cover Letter
The main focus of this unit was geometry and trigonometry. We learned how to find area for a triangle, circle, trapezoid, polygon, and parallelogram. We also dove into lateral surface area and surface area, volume of prisms and we studied sin, cosin, tangent. All of these things helped us move toward solving the question of, Is the honeycomb an efficient shape for storing honey? The first POW that we did in the unit was un-bee-lievable bees. In this POW we chose a topic to study about bees so we could have some background knowledge on the topic. I chose to study roles in the beehive.
We started this unit by learning about area and did many exercises to memorize the equations for area of a triangle, square, and a trapezoid. Then after we got background information on bees we had a right triangle quiz. In order to get closer to answering the unit question we split up into groups and worked on an equation that solved for any shape no matter how many sides and no matter what the perimeter is. Through this I found out that the more sides a shape has, the bigger area even if the perimeter stays the same. This was a very important piece in answering the unit question. In another activity called 3D shapes I discovered that the bigger the area, the bigger the volume. In the end we decided that the honeycomb shape or, the hexagon is the most efficient shape to store honey because it has the biggest volume in relationship to the least amount of surface area, or materials used. This was out final conclusion in answering the unit question.
Personal reflection
Throughout this unit I have felt I have been taught how to apply math to things I never have thought of using math for, this is an important life skill to have and I feel I have gained it through this unit. Although I liked the way we were using the content I felt I wasn’t very challenged by it. In my past years of taking math we have covered most of the things that we did in this unit. I do think that review is very helpful especially with some of these long equations that are hard to memorize. Even though most of this was review I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t bored throughout this unit because I did advocate and asked for challenge work which helped keep me on my toes. Overall, I feel proud of the work I did in this unit. One thing I learned about myself is that I like to learn concepts when we have an end goal and we are trying to work through a problem. I think that I can work well independently or with a group but I need to work on keeping my group members engaged and not taking over.
Extension Question
My extension question is, have bees used a hexagonal shape forever or did they start with something less efficient and evolve into using the honeycomb shape?
The main focus of this unit was geometry and trigonometry. We learned how to find area for a triangle, circle, trapezoid, polygon, and parallelogram. We also dove into lateral surface area and surface area, volume of prisms and we studied sin, cosin, tangent. All of these things helped us move toward solving the question of, Is the honeycomb an efficient shape for storing honey? The first POW that we did in the unit was un-bee-lievable bees. In this POW we chose a topic to study about bees so we could have some background knowledge on the topic. I chose to study roles in the beehive.
We started this unit by learning about area and did many exercises to memorize the equations for area of a triangle, square, and a trapezoid. Then after we got background information on bees we had a right triangle quiz. In order to get closer to answering the unit question we split up into groups and worked on an equation that solved for any shape no matter how many sides and no matter what the perimeter is. Through this I found out that the more sides a shape has, the bigger area even if the perimeter stays the same. This was a very important piece in answering the unit question. In another activity called 3D shapes I discovered that the bigger the area, the bigger the volume. In the end we decided that the honeycomb shape or, the hexagon is the most efficient shape to store honey because it has the biggest volume in relationship to the least amount of surface area, or materials used. This was out final conclusion in answering the unit question.
Personal reflection
Throughout this unit I have felt I have been taught how to apply math to things I never have thought of using math for, this is an important life skill to have and I feel I have gained it through this unit. Although I liked the way we were using the content I felt I wasn’t very challenged by it. In my past years of taking math we have covered most of the things that we did in this unit. I do think that review is very helpful especially with some of these long equations that are hard to memorize. Even though most of this was review I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t bored throughout this unit because I did advocate and asked for challenge work which helped keep me on my toes. Overall, I feel proud of the work I did in this unit. One thing I learned about myself is that I like to learn concepts when we have an end goal and we are trying to work through a problem. I think that I can work well independently or with a group but I need to work on keeping my group members engaged and not taking over.
Extension Question
My extension question is, have bees used a hexagonal shape forever or did they start with something less efficient and evolve into using the honeycomb shape?