Harlem Shake (not)

The following is from Cathy Yenca's website where she dealt with The Quadratic Formula but I am sure this could easily be done for other formulas in other subjects.  She showed her class some videos of what others had done for The Quadratic Formula to inspire them to make their own.  Here are some inspirational ones first.

 

 "Inspired by the current "Harlem Shake"  YouTube craze (don’t tell me you haven’t heard of this yet, the kids are eating it up!) it’s time to spice up the Quadratic Formula!  Lots of folks have already posted vids of their own renditions… well, later this week my Algebra students are going to be the next YouTube sensation… "

Here is what she had to say about her class and then I posted her classes video at the bottom.

"This Quadratic Formula video mini-project was well worth the 15 minutes of class time!

Students used their iPads to film their own videos.  Video files were small, so students simply e-mailed them to me.  I spent about an hour editing the compilation using iMovie, and surprised the students Friday by starting class with their movie!  They hadn’t seen one another’s songs, since students recorded their videos in the hallway one group at a time.  Fun stuff!

Other than enjoying the enthusiasm students possessed while creating these videos, I loved how comfortable they were with the formula on Friday during a lesson on how to use it.  Everyone was singing as they worked!  When mentioning the discriminant, I would say “b squared minus 4ac” and, right on cue, the class would say, “What?”  Who knew such a clever “hook” in the video would help all students remember the discriminant?

I think creating Quadratic Formula song videos will become an annual event in my classroom!"