Pop Tab Project

Pop Tab Project: Mission 100,000!

By now, I am sure that everyone has seen all the new AT&T commercials with all the little kids.  Well, this commercial inspired me to do my latest and greatest project.

I am excited to introduce the pop tab project.  I have 2 Honors Algebra 2 classes and 2 Honors Geometry classes that will be working towards collecting 100,000 pop tabs.  I feel that so many students know that numbers are large, but they have no idea just how big or even what it looks like.  I have to say, I cannot even imagine 100,000 pop tabs!  I am just so stinkin' excited about this!!!

Here is my game plan for this project:

I am introducing it to the students, and even the parents at Back to School Night, using the video above.    I hope this will catch their attention and get them as excited as I am.  At the end of this project, we will donate our tabs to Ronald McDonald House Charities.  So, not only will my students be learning, we will be helping a good cause.  We will be collecting tabs from August until May.  I will post updates as we go.  I plan on taking pictures along the way to show our progress.  I plan on showing how many kids it takes to hold our string of tabs.  

The Display:  I wanted to come up with a good way to display the pop tabs so that the students could visually see them.  I did not want to just keep them in jugs, I feel that lost the visual effect.  So, I am going to use fishing line and hang them around the room.  Every so often I will put a number tab in it so that we can know important number markers along the way.  

What about all the counting!?!?!?!  I am hoping that with 120 students (yes in just 4 classes I will have that many) I can give them a handful and we can knock it out.  

Collecting the tabs: I, and most of my family, have been collecting pop tabs for years.  My sorority in college always donated them.  So, I have quite the collection already started.  I am hoping this will provide some motivation to the students as well.  I would sure like to collect more than 100,000.  I originally said a million but my husband told me to think a little more realistically.  I have also put out messages on Facebook and you would not believe the responses of people who were willing to help.

Future plans: I am hoping that within my classes we can make our mark.  If it is not going as planned, I am thinking of opening it up school wide.  You would think in a school of roughly 1300 kids, we could make our mark.

Wish us luck!!!