Intro to Pythagorean Theorem

Today, I have officially decided to follow and jump on the Dan Meyer bandwagon by introducing a problem using his 3-acts.  However, I have more specifically jumped on Mr. Orr's bandwagon, as he seems to be the Canadian version of Dan Meyer from what I've read on his blog.

To start myself off on this 3-act business, I have copied Mr. Orr's video on "Corner 2 corner" with this video below:

I requested that the students write down any questions that come to mind - even non-mathematical ones.  I had some trouble amalgamating their questions as well as leading them to the question that did matter - but I have tremendous students that eventually got to the question I wanted:  what's the length of the room from the top corner to bottom corner? 

My favourite part of the whole exercise is the estimation portion.  As per Dan Meyer, it's best to ask students to answer the following:

•  What's a number that's too low? 
•  What's a number that's too high?  
•  What's the exact measurement?

Take a look:

We then discussed a plan of how to find the length of the string.  With some guidance, a couple got the concept.  Reinforcement is definitely necessary tomorrow.  

Instead of giving all the measurements, I felt that my 9s needed some movement - so I split them up into groups and they went about counting the tiles on the ground to calculate the width and length of the class.

We finished it off with some calculations and got the answer.  We have two people who guessed very close to the answer!

I'd say my first 3-act execution was somewhat of a success.  Let's hope I improve on the next one!