An American Classroom - for Shaun

Background (for anyone reading this who isn't Shaun): I am a substitute teacher and am interested in many different aspects of education. For these particular blog entries, I was interested in the physical configuration of a particular classroom in the United States. The classroom is a 6th grade classroom in Fairbanks, Alaska. In this school district, most of the 6th grades are housed in the elementary schools, along with the Kindergarten through 5th grades.

At the time that the following pictures were taken, the school was celebrating "Graph around the School" week. During this week, each class thought of something they could graph on a bulletin board. Then they posted questions for each of the grade levels pertaining to these graphs. Students circulate around the halls and answer the questions for their particular grade level.

So here it goes. First a few of the graphing pictures. Captions are under the pictures.


Fast Food Restaurant Decisions
The graph on the left shows foods preferred by the students. The graph in the center shows the time of day for maximum sales. The graph on the right shows preparation time (pizza is at the bottom).


Heart Rates: Relaxed vs. Accelerated


How Far Can You Ride a Bike in 5 Minutes?
Students rode bicycles for 5 minutes.


Number of Animals in Alaska
The students graphed the number of animals of particular species that are estimated to be present in Alaska. This was done in connection with an art project, so you also see the decorated animals (not realistically colored).


Awesome Airplanes
The students made standard style paper airplanes and graphed the distances the paper airplanes flew.


How Many Steps Do You Take?
The students wore pedometers for 24 hours and graphed how many steps they took in a day. They also did computations on how many steps they should take for better fitness.