STERLING — While textbooks can be a good tool to help students grasp concepts, sometimes it helps to get hands-on, which is exactly what students in Anthony Serrato's math classes at Sterling High School have recently been doing
Last week, one of his classes launched water balloons as part of their study of quadratic functions. The students used homemade devices ranging from slingshots to long poles to launch the water balloons, to investigate quadratic functions as they relate to the flight of an object as a parabola.
"Luckily the weather cooperated, but the best part was the kids had fun even though they were doing math," Serrato said.
Students measured the launch height and timed the flight of the water balloons to calculate the velocity, the flight equation and its overall height. Several balloons had height times of about four seconds, traveling as fast as 50 feet per second, and hit heights of over 60 feet.
"With some more trials and adjustments, our times, heights and velocities will improve. Maybe next year," Serrato said.
Students in his geometry class have been getting in on the fun as well. They recently built kites as part of unit where they investigated surface area to mass ratios, diagonals and improving structural stability, trigonometry, symmetry, Bernoulli's principle, aerodynamics and basic measurement.
After building the kits, the students were required to present their experience, describing their rationale behind their designs, problems encountered and what adjustments they made.
"Just like the balloon launch, they had fun even though it was a ton of math," Serrato said.
Contact Journal-Advocate staff writer Callie Jones at 970-526-9286 or firstname.lastname@example.org