WCYDWT Live: Dirt

August 20th, 2010 by Dan Meyer

I found our last live session fun and extremely profitable. I'm grateful to everyone who participated live in the DimDim room and later in the comments.

I'd like to pull in twenty more volunteers to play around with a math problem tomorrow afternoon and test out some of my recent modifications to the instructional design. If you can commit 45 minutes, please drop a comment in the box using an email address where I can reach you tomorrow. We pulled a lot of people off the waiting list last time, so consider adding a comment even if twenty people have already signed up.

57 Comments »

57 Responses to “WCYDWT Live: Dirt”

on 20 Aug 2010 at 11:43 am1 Aaron

I’ll bite… aaronswoboda(at)gmail.com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 11:43 am2 Mr K

I’m up for it!
on 20 Aug 2010 at 11:45 am3 Jennifer Foster

I am interested in playing around with a math problem tomorrow. I am currently getting ready to teach senior math and reading your website and seeing you put great ideas into action is reassuring.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 11:47 am4 David L

I want to try again – last time I botched the time and missed it.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 11:49 am5 Terry Kaminski

Count me in!!! kaminskiterry@gmail.com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:31 pm6 Mr. H

Count me in.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:37 pm7 Jon Voisey

I’m game: VoijaRisa@gmail.com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:40 pm8 Sarah

I’d like to participate – sarahives@gmail.com
What time tomorrow? I assume this will be on PST?
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:40 pm9 Sarah

oops – it pays to read the graphic! :) 3pm PST, got it!
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:43 pm10 Alon

Happy to try – but have some constraints throughout the day… do you know what time PST this will take place?

alon.amit@gmail.com, in any case.

Tx!
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:45 pm11 Tom

Happy to join!
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:48 pm12 Ashli

Sounds like a good time. I’m there.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 12:49 pm13 josh g.

Count me in.
josh@thoughtlost.org
on 20 Aug 2010 at 1:04 pm14 Steve G.

I’d love to join in this time. I’m very new to the site, and I’m finding all of this very thought-provoking and inspiring.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 1:07 pm15 Claire Thompson

Would love to participate!
thompsonclaire0(at)gmail(dot)com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 1:40 pm16 Mark Betnel

I’d like to participate too
on 20 Aug 2010 at 1:51 pm17 Surani Joshua

I’d love to participate!

~ Surani
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:15 pm18 Uli

Hi Dan,
Count me in!
Uli
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:21 pm19 Michelle

I’ll help, if you want. What time is it for EST?
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:22 pm20 Michelle

Oh, email at bullardmichelle@hotmail.com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:26 pm21 Alex

Sounds fun.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:27 pm22 Stacy

I’m in. stacy(dot)sidle(at)gmail(dot)com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:30 pm23 Justin Lanier

Woohoo!
justin.lanier(at)gmail.com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:32 pm24 Dan

count me in!
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:39 pm25 Math Zombie

I’m in. haren.12@gmail.com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 2:46 pm26 Mimi

That would be totally awesome. Count me in if you get extra space.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 3:00 pm27 Kate Nowak

ooh. me. me.
on 20 Aug 2010 at 3:56 pm28 Tricia Lazzaro

Please expand your group to 30 so more can benefit from your awesome model.
Tricia
on 20 Aug 2010 at 4:25 pm29 Shannon

oh heck! count me in!
shannonavina(at)comcast(dot)net
on 20 Aug 2010 at 5:06 pm30 Jen

sounds like fun :)
jrmacdon(at)gmail.com
on 20 Aug 2010 at 5:11 pm31 Jami Packer

Wait list me. :D
on 20 Aug 2010 at 6:12 pm32 Frank

I’m down. :o0
on 20 Aug 2010 at 6:27 pm33 Peter

Dan,

If there is an extra spot, count me in.

pwobyrne@gmail.com

thanks
on 20 Aug 2010 at 7:19 pm34 Tansel Pope

If there is an extra spot, I’m game
on 20 Aug 2010 at 9:53 pm35 Amanda

Why must people get married when I could be discussing math curriculum?
Looking forward to reading the results thereafter :)
on 21 Aug 2010 at 4:48 am36 Darcy Whyte

I can volunteer.

Darcy@Siteware.com
http://www.rubber-power.com
on 21 Aug 2010 at 5:11 am37 Michaela

Yeah I’ll be working but maybe the next one:) Looking forward to reading about it after.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 6:02 am38 Erick

Is there a spot open?
on 21 Aug 2010 at 6:17 am39 Maria

I would love to take part. tx!

mam_marquis(a)yahoo(dot)com
on 21 Aug 2010 at 6:17 am40 Monica

I’m in.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 6:28 am41 Michael Paul Goldenberg

mikegold@umich.edu
on 21 Aug 2010 at 8:06 am42 SarahKM

If there’s an open spot count me in.
skmillard@gmail.com
on 21 Aug 2010 at 10:05 am43 Scott

If there is room count me in.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 10:46 am44 Mark Betnel

Something came up, and I won’t be able to do it today (comment 16 above) — looks like there will be plenty of people to take the spot. :)
on 21 Aug 2010 at 11:12 am45 David L

Dan,

Has there been a DimDim invite sent to those participating? It’s 3:11 on the east coast and I’m thinking that I missed my shot.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 12:34 pm46 Dan Meyer

This thing’s running at 3:00 PM on the Pacific which means 6:00 PM Eastern.

If anybody knows how I can possibly make the time zone thing any clearer, I’m all ears.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 1:10 pm47 Claire Thompson

Here’s a link to the world clock. Find a city that is in your time zone and the time next to it should be the equivalent of 3pm Pacific.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 1:11 pm48 Steve G.

You know, Dan, I got a little confused about the time as well, because it says 3:00 Pacific STANDARD Time on your graphic, but most of us Pacific folks (if not everyone?) are on Pacific DAYLIGHT Time right now. So, I made sure to be home before 2:00, just in case, then realized I was converting backwards, so that 3:00 PST would actually be at 4:00 PDT. So I figured I’ll keep an eye on my email shortly before 3:00, and if that doesn’t work, slightly before 4:00. It sounds, from your 12:34 post (my favorite time of the day, 1-2-3-4), like it’s going to be at 3:00 pm “regular” time (i.e. PDT).

As for increasing clarity next time, perhaps do what TV show ads often do: just list Pacific and Eastern times and let the Central and Mountain folks work inward from those “boundary” times. If you wrote “3 pm Pacific/6 pm Eastern”, I imagine that would remove most (if not all) of the confusion.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 1:15 pm49 Steve G.

And as a possibly-interesting side note, it appears that the time stamps on comments here are given in PST, so my “1:11 pm” comment was actually written at 2:11 pm on all the clocks in my house (here in Oregon, on PDT).
on 21 Aug 2010 at 1:19 pm50 Mr. K

> just list Pacific and Eastern times

Or use Zulu time. It’s a lot less Ethnocentric that way.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 1:29 pm51 David L

So I feel the need to explain, I didn’t misunderstand the time – 3pm PST is 6pm here. Got it. Had it. All over it.

I thought that I missed the DimDim invite and I wanted to ask early, hence the reference to 3:11pm EST.

Sorry for the confusion…though I am wondering What Can I Do With This confusion about timezones.
on 21 Aug 2010 at 1:52 pm52 Mike

Count me in if it’s not too late!
on 21 Aug 2010 at 3:24 pm53 Steve G.

Trying to find another way to check the soil density, I found (on the internet of course) a range of 1-2 grams per cubic cm for desert soil, and also tried (at my son’s suggestion) lunar soil, which gave me a range of 1.58-1.74 g/cm3. I arbitrarily chose 1.6 g/cm3, which I converted to 99.9 lb/ft3. Not that far from the number we used (120 lb/ft3). Rounding to 100, I still get a yearly total of 173.25 tons of dirt. Astounding!

So, if X-Ray dug about 1000 pounds *less* of dirt each day, how much dirt are these boys digging, anyway? The 5-foot shovelers dig almost 10,000 pounds, I calculate. 3% less shovel digs approximately 10% less dirt.

Other extensions:

How much shorter would a shovel have to be for a boy to dig half as much as the others?

What size of a shovel would a (very, very small) person use to dig a hole with only 100 pounds of dirt? [Like a textbook comparison of cube-to-cylinder volumes.]

Thanks again for the meeting, Dan!
on 21 Aug 2010 at 4:21 pm54 Karen

Email if you end up going waaaaay deep.
on 24 Aug 2010 at 7:27 am55 WCYDWT Live: Reflection « Clarify Me

[...] This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to be one of the 20 for the second WCYDWT Live session. [...]
on 06 Sep 2010 at 9:21 am56 dy/dan » Blog Archive » “The best learning begins with a good worksheet.”

[...] introduce me to new ideas, who offer me their time and energy to field-test my latest harebrained schemes, readers who have helped me pinball quickly from failure to [...]
on 16 Mar 2011 at 10:58 am57 Kevin

This sort of thing makes me so upset. Thanks for exposing it.