Hello blog readers, 

This scimatics post is from a very short unit, however still very important. For this mini project we were supposed to come up with a presentation to answer the question “how can we use linear equations to predict how a body of water will change over time?” 

I did a solo project for this but partners were allowed. In the design criteria these were the things that had to be included. 

• project must include graphs and equations for a linear rate of
  change
• Future and/or past must be explained/predicted 
• 2 weeks maximum time
• partners or singles 

For the project I decided to make a keynote that I could present in front of the class. I couldn’t find a body of water that I was really interested in so instead to make this project more personalized I did this experiment. Also instead of just doing one experiment I wanted to see does having more surface are cause the water to evaporate faster? My hypothesis was that the bowl with the surface are of 7.5cm would lose its water slower than the plate with the surface area of 15cm. I put 60ml of liquid in both and let them sit. I used y for volume as the water evaporates, I used x for the rate of change, and I used B for the volume of water in the plate and cup.

I made two equations with my information. The first equation is from the plate. The second is from the bowl. As you can see the bowl took more hours to lose all of its 60ml.

This is the graph that the linear equation makes. There’s the y-axis and here’s the x-axis. The red line is from the plate with the bigger surface area and the blue line is the bowl with the smaller surface area.

I worked hard to improve on 4 curricular competencies during this project. The first competency I improved on was reasoning and modelling. For this I estimated reasonably and demonstrated strategic thinking about numbers. The second competency I improved on was understanding and solving. For this I applied flexible and strategic approaches to problem solving. I did this when my graphs weren’t working out so I decided to handle that situation in another way. The third competency I improved on was communicating and representing. For this I made sure to explain all the mathematical vocabulary in my presentation and make sure I knew what everything meant. The fourth competency I improved on was connecting and reflecting. I personalized the whole project and I also discussed the project with my teacher to be able to ask further question and include more knowledge while presenting. 

Here is my keynote

Overall I learned about how when you have more surface are the rate of change is faster than when you have less surface space so my experiment proved my hypothesis correct. Here is my mind map showing more of my learning.