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Home Page, MSTE, University of Illinois Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles Dan Meyer's Three Acts 2016 Oct 7. I was wrong about everything below. After admitting defeat to #bottleflipping, my commenters rescued the lesson. I’m sorry. Relevant background information: Last spring, 18-year-old Mike Senatore, in a display of infinite swagger, flipped a bottle and landed it perfectly on its end. That thirty-second video has six million views at the time of this writing. my brother's teacher banned bottle flipping what— irelia (@booseungkwon) October 5, 2016 Some of my favorite math educators suggested that we turn those water bottles into a math lesson instead of confiscating them. I was game. Marta flipped x2 + 6x + 8 bottles in x + 4 minutes. Obviously unsatisfactory, right? For me, at the end of this hypothetical lesson, I want students to feel more powerful, able to complete some task more efficiently or more accurately. Ideally, that task would be bottle flipping. The quadratic formula grants you no extra power when you’re in mid-air with the basketball. Act One Act Two Okay. Act Three