Illuminations: How Do You Organize the Counties in Your State?

How Do You Organize the Counties in Your State?

What Counties Are Your Favorite?

Students use their knowledge from the previous lesson to gather data on ten of their favorite counties (places they might like to live, visit, etc.) within a specific state. Students will hone their place value skills by representing numbers in various ways including standard, written, and expanded form.

Learning Objectives
 
Students will:
  • gather data from the U.S. Census
  • represent numbers in written form, expanded form, and standard form
  • compare numbers by ordering them from greatest to least

Materials
 
What Counties Are Your Favorite? Activity Sheet
U.S. Census Data
Index cards

Instructional Plan

Students will need access to the U.S. Census Data.

As they did in the previous lesson, students should gather population data on counties from their home state. This lesson requires data from 10 counties. If a student selects a state which has less than 10 counties, the student may select additional counties from a neighboring state, for a total of 10 counties.)

Distribute the What Counties Are Your Favorite? activity sheet to students. Students will work independently to write the populations in standard, written and expanded form.

What Counties Are Your Favorite? Activity Sheet

For example, a student might record the following information on their activity sheet:

 
County
Population
(Standard Form)
Population
(Written Form)
Population
(Expanded Form)
New Hanover County 160,307 one hundred sixty thousand, three hundred seven 100,000 + 60,000 + 300 + 7

 

After students have organized their data into the table above, compare the counties with the greatest populations and smallest populations. Have students put each population on an index card (in standard form) and order their populations from greatest to least. Then ask them to work with a partner, combine the two piles to make 20 cards, and order their combined piles from greatest to least.

Ask students how they knew how to order the cards. As extra practice, students may repeat this activity using index cards in written form or expanded form.

Questions for Students
 

Which county in your set has the largest population?

[Answers will depend upon students' individual data.]

Do you think the land area has anything to do with the population?

[It depends on the location in the United States. Some areas are more densely populated than others.]

Did you and your partner have any populations that were identical or close?

[Answers will depend upon students' individual data.]

Are the populations closer if you round each number?

[Answers will depend upon students' individual data, but students may tend to see such a pattern.]

Assessment Options
 
  1. Written work on standard, written, and expanded form could be collected and used for assessment purposes.

Extensions
 
  1. Students may find the median of the set of data from their 20 index cards.

Teacher Reflection
 
  • Were students able to represent numbers in standard, word and expanded form?
  • What modifications were/can be made for students having difficulty representing numbers in different ways?

NCTM Standards and Expectations
 
Data Analysis & Probability 3-5
  1. Collect data using observations, surveys, and experiments.
  2. Represent data using tables and graphs such as line plots, bar graphs, and line graphs.
This lesson prepared by Grace M. Burton and Carol Midgett.
  
1 period   

NCTM Resources

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics

Web Sites
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