Where can I go these days?

This is the last post of this blog and I would like to finish it talking about a reality which concerns all of us, both young and old people, as citizens. Currently, we are living an exceptional situation of confinement due to the sanitary crisis of Coronavirus (COVID-19). We have been almost fifty days at home without going out trying to stop the pandemic. Today, the second of May, we are allowed to leave our homes and go out to practise a sport or just walk. It has become the first step of this particular freedom.

However, we have to be careful and follow all the security instructions that the Government have established. One of them is the timetable for the population. Adults over 14 years old can go out from 6 to 10 a.m. and from 8 to 11 p.m. to practise a sport or walk. Elderly people over 70 years old and disabled people can go out from 10 to 12 a.m. and from 7 to 8 p.m. Finally, children can leave their houses from 12 to 7 p.m. The following picture will clarify these timetables.

 Furthermore, people who just go out to walk must do it in a limited area of one kilometre from their place of residence. But, how can we measure it? I have found an interesting webpage which uses geolocation and determines the perimeter you should follow. You have just to look for your home, press on it and the webpage informs you as it is indicated in the picture. 

The link of the page is https://1km.geomatico.es/. I think that it could be interesting to show it to our children because they can get used to the idea of how much one kilometre is and how it is measured. Moreover, we have to establish a security distance between people to avoid being infected. This social distance is about one meter and the students can also measure it.

As we have seen, we can take advantage of everyday situations, even when the circumstances are unfavourable, to teach something to our students. The most important aspect is that we have a positive predisposition and ideas to develop our thoughts. This is the basis of a great teacher!  

What's the weather like?

The weather is something that affects all of us. Although maybe you are not aware of it, I am sure that you usually check the weather forecast before going outside to know what clothes wear, if you need to bring an umbrella, etc. Today, we are going to focus on meteorology and its close relation to Mathematics, especially to probability and statistics.

Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting. The meteorological phenomena are bound by the variables that exist in Earth’s atmosphere. All of these variables can be measured through different instruments. Meteorologists are the people who analyse and study the atmospheric conditions of a place. After some time, they can talk about a kind of climate to this studied area. Finally, they can make predictions and elaborate forecasts that we normally consult.

Meteorological forecasts are completed processes in which lots of variables and elements are involved. Meteorologists measure and analyse temperature, precipitation, air pressure, humidity, etc. and they use different instruments to collect data. The most common tool is the thermometer, which is used to measure the temperature. The wind can be measured with the anemometer (speed) and the weather vane (direction). The barometer measures the atmospheric pressure whereas the rain meter collects the precipitations. In the following video, the students can learn about different types of weather.

After seeing all these contents, I wonder, how can we apply them at school? We have to think about different ideas. For instance, in my last Practicum, the children measured the temperature every day with a thermometer that they had in a window and they noted the grades down in their notebooks with the date and a drawing of the weather. It was quite simple and it helped them to know the temperature of each day, their variations and the atmospheric weather just by watching at the sky and expressing their views. They also noted down the season. In the end, they carried out a brief debate about the weather changes, their impressions, etc.

It could be a great activity for your classes and I would add something more. Since we are dealing with probability, it would be positive that everyday children look for the probability of precipitation, which appears in the official app of the AEMET, for instance. They can note it down too and draw conclusions about probability with the example of the weather. Using this app, they can also work with other items, such as wind speed or direction. If we want to go further, they can represent the collected data in some graphics so that they will study statistics at the same time. This is the link of the official page: AEMET Official Webpage

Sports Festival

In this post, we are going to deal with the concept of statistics, analysis of data and its application to our school daily activities. Statistics is the science which studies data collection and analysis and it is present in several fields of our life, such as medicine, economy, sports, weather, and also at school. It is really useful to teach statistics to students because it implies understanding, presentation of data and concluding different issues which can be applied in their daily lives later on.

In this case, we will present a functional activity that can be carried out in our school. The context is the following. All the teachers in our school, especially the Physical Education teachers, are concerned about the free time activities that children do nowadays. Instead of playing traditional games or doing sports, they spent the evenings in their bedrooms playing computer games or surfing on the internet, that is, in front of a screen. This can become a really dangerous problem for their health, so the teachers want to organise a “Sports Festival” at school to encourage learners to practise sport as a leisure activity. However, they do not want to select the kind of sports because they do not know which are the students’ preferences.

For this reason, the students of the sixth year of Primary Education are going to do research following the statistical process. They will be divided into five groups and each one will be in charge of the classes of a level. The first step of the process is the collection of data. Each group will write down on a table which is the favourite sport of their classmates.

The second stage is the interpretation of the data collected and its representation in a graphic. In this way, the learners will see perfectly the differences between the most and the less preferable sports in the school. The graphics allow them to observe the information in a different, colourful and easier way. In this case, they will use a bar diagram and a sector one to see the percentages. To create the graphics, they can use the App “Chart draw” which allow them to create different kinds of graphics. You can download it in the following link: Chart Draw App

Finally, it is time to draw conclusions. Our students will draw their conclusions about the sports preferences at school and they will discuss them in a debate with the rest of the teachers in order to organise better the Sports Festival. This activity can help them to improve their oral expression in public with the support of the results represented in the graphics.