Math...interesting?

I got the chance to teach the entire day last week. I was in control of all three classes. I was extremely excited. I knew that calculus would run smoothly. It is a great bunch of kids and there are only 10 of them. I was not so sure about third and fourth period Finite. During my plan period, I looked at the notes that were prepared for class. It looked just like any other normal day. However, I really wanted to engage the class and make things interesting. To do this, my mentor teacher and I came up with some really interesting example problems. I was supposed to teach exponential growth and decay involving half life and doubling. Here are the problems we came up with:

1. The zombie population doubles every 6 hours. If there are only 4 zombies at this moment, how many zombies will there be in 2 days?
2. Welcome to college, girls! The freshman boys are AWAY from home and NO LONGER BATHING. The number of guys you would even consider dating is dropping by one-half every week. If you had an initial list of 50 potential hotties, how many would still be on your list after 28 days?

The last example problem really excited the class. The students really enjoyed it and everyone got into it. I ended the lecture with a last thought. I told the boys to keep showering. I told the girls that math can help them find their "hotties."

Overall, this was a very successful day. The main thing that I learned was that if we can make math interesting, useful, and realistic, then the students will pay more attention and be more involved.