Ms. Cobb Incorporates Life Lessons Into 7th Grade Math with Slime Day

JoAnna Cobb is a 7th grade math teacher at Bedford Middle School. This is her 10th year of teaching. Ms. Cobb says she “adores mathematics and the way math is involved in every aspect of daily living.”

 

My mission as a teacher is to instill a love of math and a love of learning in students.  Educational goals following naturally from those interests.  I like to do activities that bring all kinds of disciplines into the math classroom because it incorporates the interests and strengths of students, and it allows the students to see the math all around them.

That is the reason Ms. Cobb uses the slime activity.  The students convert slime recipes using ratios and proportions, make the slime, then observe its properties.  It’s a lot of fun!  It even ends up being an art lesson by the end as they all combine their different colors into tie-dye-looking slime globs.

Ms. Cobb also integrates different activities that involve other disciplines like running (PE/health), geocaching (geography/history), poetry (LA/music), and TONS of art stuff.  She adds, “Heck, it’s hard NOT to incorporate other disciplines!”

This is one teacher who not only gets it home to the dinner table but inspires her students to learn, relate and discover math in all areas of life.