Monday, August 12, 2013

Decision Tree

I recently introduced the girls to decision trees in one of our living math sessions. Decision trees are used to sort and classify things, so the simplest way to learn about one seemed to be to perform an experiment which we did.
 
 


From the book; Understanding Math - Graphs and Charts

You will need:
  • 3 tsp flour, 3 tsp salt, 3 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 3 tsp icing sugar in four identical containers and not marked so you don't know which container contains which.
  • vinegar
  • water
  • ice cube tray
  • plate to mix substances on
  • tsp to measure

Then follow the decision tree (pictured above) to work out what each substance is.

First of all mix one teaspoon of each of the four powders with some vinegar.

Secondly, you need to mix 1 teaspoon of the remaining three substances with some water,

Thirdly you will need to dissolve one teaspoonful of the last two substances in five teaspoonfuls of water. Pour the two mixtures into separate ice cube trays (we simply used one end for each in one tray)  and put them in the freezer for one hour.

The girls had a ball and declared it their best math class ever!






3 comments :

  1. sounds cool! Thanks for visiting my blog, sorry it has been months for me to reply, I was very busy and sick. I will try to get on more often. I love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello lovely Hannah, thank you so much for your kind words. I am sorry to hear that you have been unwell. I just read on your blog that you have had pneumonia ... how awful for you. You take care and I look forward to reading more of your updates.

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    2. Hi,
      Thanks. I am all better now. I will take care and hopefully I won't get it again.
      I am off to write another blog post, bye!

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