Sucker Rates

This is an activity to look at average rates of change (AROC) and instantaneous rates of change (IROC). Students are asked to get a piece of dental floss, a tootsie pop and a measuring device.

Students then collect data every thirty seconds after being told to suck evenly and with the same enthusiasm each time. They then record the circumference at thirty second time intervals.

Here are some photos of "sucking" and students measuring the circumference.

 







We then investigated AROC and IROC for radius, surface area, and volume using the data we collected.

 

Fun! However I have more questions.

How does the rate of change of the radius change as the tootsie pop gets smaller (time advances)?

How does the rate of change of the surface area change as the tootsie pop gets smaller (time advances)?

How does the rate of change of the volume change as the tootsie pop gets smaller (time advances)?

 

This activity created a stir on twitter.



 

Here is the link to the youtube video

 

The next day students worked on this consolidating worksheet.