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Differentiation TechniqueGet Ridiculous

Read The Overview: Get Ridiculous!

One technique for finding complexity in a topic is to look for the edge cases, the outliers, the really big or small versions.

Specific Examples of “Get Ridiculous”

Garden Path Sentences

Garden Path Sentences seem to begin one way, but quickly fall apart, forcing the reader to start over and interpret words in a new way. A simple example is: "The old man the boat."

Goldbach’s Conjecture

Our look at math conjectures continues with Goldbach's Conjecture, which states that all even integers greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two primes. Is this true for all cases? Another authentic, unsolved question.

What Did You (Not) Do During Summer Break?

Ask your students to write about their summer breaks, but remix their activities into a new genre or setting. Perhaps they vacationed at Hogwarts, Mordor, or Tatooine? Not interested in a writing assignment?

An Academic Twist on Valentines

Want to have some February fun? Let's merge the idea of "going together like milk and cookies" with curriculum to create Academic Valentine's Day cards!

What if you lived in Vegas but worked in San Francisco?

Is it possible to save money by commuting to San Francisco from Las Vegas?

Think Like An Engineer: Egg Drop

At our school, 6th graders participate in an annual egg drop. To increase the rigor, I looked for unique scientific roles and came up with three: designing a parachute to slow the egg's descent, testing materials to pack inside the structure, and developing the structure itself. Each of these roles will be developed into a scientific discipline.

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