I Really Love Polygons!

My brain has been in overdrive the last few days trying to learn totally new (to me) geography concepts, so I thought it would be nice to think about the most enjoyable concept in class so far. I enjoy shapes, and I was reminded in the lesson they are also called polygons. I feel like most things in this world can be broken down into multiple shapes to help me understand the more complex shapes. I happen to be a very visual oriented person. This lesson was enjoyable to me because shapes are something my mind can easily manipulate. I found I had no problem classifying triangles, but quadrilaterals had me all confused. I found this awesome parody on Youtube.com, and I thought the words were catchy and do a pretty good job of helping me to remember how to classify my quadrilaterals. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzJ6l-Hr7lc

A quadrilateral has four sides and the interior angles will always add to 360 degrees. 

Squares and rectangles must both have ninety degree angles, but a rectangle must have two sets of parallel lines that can have differing lengths while a square has two sets of parallel lines with congruent lengths. A kite must have two pairs of congruent sides, but they will always be adjacent. A parallelogram must have two pairs of congruent sides, but they will always be opposite sides. A trapezoid may not have any congruent sides, but two sides will always be parallel. A rhombus has four sides equal in length, and the opposite sides will be parallel as well. I found an awesome chart at This Site that organizes the quadrilateral polygons into a nice flow chart for those visual learners like myself. Have fun finding and sorting the polygons in your world!

Perils of Probability

As of January 2019, I am officially a math student again. It has been a glorious 15 year break, but we are officially back together to experience the lows of confusion and the highs of understanding, and the resulting madness that can occur somewhere in between.

As it has been so long since I participated in a math class, it would be an understatement to say I felt like I was drowning in confusion before the end of week one, PROBABILITY. After I struggled through the homework, where tears may or may not have been shed, I dove into an assignment called Toads and Vines. This happened to be an online game much like Chutes and Ladders, only you need to answer probability questions relating to the game board correctly to earn a roll of the dice or a spin of the spinner. Because I had persevered with the homework, I had what I thought was a decent understanding of probability. Level one began with a spinner equal sections numbered one through three. With questions like, "What is the probability that you will end on the vine?", and knowing there was only one spot I could possibly hit this turn to land on a vine, I rocked the level. When I won (reached the end of the game board), I was almost arrogant in my ability to answer probability questions.

Lucky for me, my wonderful teacher assigned level one AND level two. I was super excited to show the game how smart I am! Level two began not with a spinner, but with two dice. I really thought it wouldn't be a big deal because I totally understand probability at this point. I could not have been more wrong. The first question was "How many outcomes are possible if you roll two dice?" Me, in my arrogance didn't even think twice before thinking "each dice has six possibilities, so there must be twelve possible outcomes." What was I thinking? That began level two with an incorrect answer and a very humbled student. After continuing to get the next few questions wrong, I finally decided it was time to get back to learning. I immediately hit Google in an attempt to find a video that might shed some new light on the concept for me. I found this gem!

Video found on YouTube.com, but produced by the Kahn Academy

After watching the video, I realized that addition was the wrong kind of problem for determining the total possible outcomes for two dice, and that the Toads and Vines game level two had a chart of all possible sample set at the bottom. Through trial and error I learned to use the chart, count the number of possible outcomes per each individual question, and use my prior understanding that the probability is the number of favorable outcomes over the total possible outcomes. I was eventually able to finish level two. We won't say how long it took, or how many questions I missed, only that I finished and won. I gained a few new grey hairs, but haven't completely lost my mind yet.