Digital Photos, Flickr, Blogs, & Math

I have done some exploring over the past few days and as result the past few posts have gotten away from mathematics. This post will get me back on topic.

As you can see below, I have started to use Flickr. Now I need to talk about how useful it can be in a math classroom. Before reading on, please read about how digital images can be used in the classroom at Future of Math.

Let's talk about how to integrate blogs and digital images using Flickr in a lesson on rational numbers. As you know, rational numbers are numbers that can be written as a ratio. A fraction a/b, where b does not equal zero, is an example. Using a digital camera, students can take photos of subjects that represent real world rational numbers. To make the lesson more enjoyable, make the numbers with candy like M & M's.

Here are some examples:

Part - whole. A small bag of M & M's has 20 pieces. How much of the bag is piece?

Quotient. Six M & M's are to be shared equally among four people. How many pieces does each person get?

Ratio. What is the ratio of red colored M & M's to the total number in the whole bag?

Have students take a photo of each of the examples of above. Then have them upload the photos to Flickr and then to their blogs. The title of each photo could be the type of rational number the photo represents. In the "Your Post" text box, students could describe what is seen in the photo. Their descriptions would be the definition of each interpretation.