Tasks

Some things I think that make a task worthwhile:

• Tasks are interactive
• Making task-positive outcomes
• Use of communication/discussion for different concepts/goals
• Develop critical thinking

Tasks in Mathematics:

Looking back at the different task being used in the classroom it brings me back to tasks that are very common in high school classes. We see this as finding the hypotenuse of an object. The objective of this is to use our own height, the length of our shadow, the height of the object, and the length of the shadow of the object. During this lesson, students are needed to measure themselves as well as the shadow. In the task, you are going over ratios and proportions, towards the task it is well used in starting the students if you are covering ratios and proportions. As I have seen this task done multiple times in different versions it of being done on a task that is already made up or the students would have to find it on their own. If students do this on their own it would depend on what time the students are taking the measurement of the shadow as the length of the shadow can change depending on where the sun is placed. While on the other hand when the students already have the measurements of the shadow you will get answers that are close together while having the students do their own measurements you might get answers that are off by inches or feet.

I find that this task is very rich as it promotes students' critical thinking. Students are able to communicate with each other about what they have gotten for their answers. The tasks allow the students to understand various topics in proportion and ratio as well as using different formulas used in geometry.