Individual Lessons
Lesson 1 - Planning a Class Field Trip
This lesson focuses students’ attention on the variables used in planning trips. It captures students’ interest, provides a review of the primary unit objectives, and assesses students’ prior knowledge. This experience enables students to consider the variables that must be accounted for in planning a class field trip.
Lesson 2 - Presenting the Plan for a Class Trip
During this segment, student groups present the plans they developed in the previous lesson. This provides the teacher an opportunity to review students’ attainment of the primary unit objectives and to assess students’ current knowledge and skill level. This experience focuses students’ attention on the mathematics needed in planning a short trip. It builds towards the application of these understandings and skills in the remaining segments of the unit.
Lesson 3 - Planning a Class Trip to a Local Attraction
This lesson builds on the previous lessons and encourages the students to work in groups and apply their knowledge about a trip in a new context. In this lesson, students plan a trip to a local attraction such as a museum, a site of historical or scientific significance, or business. They research times the attraction is open, its distance from the school and prepare a schedule which is displayed to inform as they solve an open-ended problem involving distance and time. This experience focuses students’ attention on the mathematics needed in planning a trip and allows them to apply these understandings and skills in a
group-selected context.
Lesson 4 - Planning a Trip to the State Capitol
During this lesson, student groups will plan a trip to the state capitol (either overnight or a day trip, depending upon location.) Using the skills they developed in the previous lessons, students determine not only elapsed time and distance, but extend their problem solving to figuring meals and lodging costs. As students tackle this more complex task, teachers have opportunity to observe students’ growing competence. These include which
variables students attend to, if students can find distances from a map, if students can find elapsed time, or if students can use elapsed time to plan a schedule.
Lesson 5 - Planning a Trip to Disneyland or Disney World
Using the Web site, student groups collect data to plan a trip to Disneyland or Disney World. [You may wish to substitute some other destination of high interest for your students.] In lesson 6 students plan the trip using data collected in this lesson. Depending upon your location, this may be an overnight trip or a day trip. Using skills they developed in the previous lessons, students determine not only elapsed time and distance, but extend their problem solving to figuring meals, lodging, and air travel.
As students tackle this more complex task, teachers have opportunity to observe students’ growing competence with methods and tools for computation,
estimation, problem posing and solving, interpretation of graphical representations, measuring with standard units, and responding to investigations that require the comparison of data sets. This lesson is designed to take
approximately 45 minutes but time will vary according to the needs and abilities of your students.
Lesson 6 - Planning a Trip to Disneyland or Disney World, Part Two
During this lesson, student groups use data collected in the previous lesson to plan a trip to Disneyland or Disney World. Using skills they developed in the previous lessons, students determine not only elapsed time and distance, but extend their problem solving to figuring meals, lodging, air travel, and incidentals.
As students tackle this more complex task, teachers have opportunity to observe students’ growing competence with methods and tools for computation, estimation, problem posing and solving, interpretation of graphical representations, measuring with standard units, and responding to investigations that require the comparison of data sets. This lesson is designed to take approximately 45 minutes but time will vary according to the needs and abilities of your students.
Lesson 7 - Choosing the Best Option
During this lesson, student groups use data collected in the previous lesson to select a plan for a trip to Disneyland or Disney World. Using skills they developed in the previous lessons, students determine not only elapsed time and distance, but extend their problem solving to figuring meals, lodging, air travel, and incidentals in order to select the best option.
As students tackle this more complex task, teachers have opportunity to observe students’ growing competence with methods and tools for computation, estimation, problem posing and solving, interpretation of graphical representations, measuring with standard units, and responding to investigations that require the comparison of data sets.
Lesson 8 - Looking Back and Moving Forward
During this lesson, student use mathematical knowledge and skills developed in the previous lessons to demonstrate understanding and ability to apply that knowledge in a real-life context. As students tackle more complex tasks, teachers have opportunity to observe student’s competence with methods and tools for computation, estimation, problem posing and solving, collection of data, organization and interpretation of graphical representations, measuring with standard units, and responding to investigations that require the comparison of data sets.
