3-5, 6-8
Who can build the best boat? In this lesson, students are challenged to create aluminum foil boats that are then tested by filling them with plastic bears until they sink. The lesson serves as a fun, hands-on way to collect data. The data from two attempts is collected and used to make two class box-and-whisker plots with some surprising results.
3-5
Students decompose 2-digit numbers, model area representations using the distributive property and partial product arrays, and align paper-and-pencil calculations with the arrays. The lessons provide conceptual understanding of what occurs in a 2-digit multiplication problem. Partial product models serve as transitions to understanding the standard multiplication algorithm.
3-5, 6-8
In this lesson, students use a Venn diagram to sort prime factors of two or more positive integers. Students calculate the greatest common factor by multiplying common prime factors and develop a definition based on their exploration.
3-5
Students love games! In this lesson, students apply what they know about area by planning a four square tournament for their school. They'll calculate the total area of a large room and figure out how many four square game courts are possible. The lesson promotes problem solving and decision making as students work to design a tournament space that allows for movement of people and active game play.
3-5
In this series of 3 hands-on activities, students develop and reinforce their understanding of hundredths as fractions, decimals, and percentages. Students explore using candy pieces as they physically make and connect a set/linear model to area models.
3-5
Oil spills are in the news. To make real-world connections, this lesson provides hands-on experiences with mixing oil and water, provides surface area information about the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and gives students opportunities to estimate small oil spills of their own making.
3-5
In this lesson, students will create memorable benchmarks for ounces and pounds by playing a classroom scavenger hunt game in which they gain points for finding objects that weigh approximately an ounce or pound. Students will practice weighing objects and will discuss why it is important to know the difference between ounces and pounds.
3-5
In this lesson, students prepare jumping jack data to send to officials on the planet Jumpalot. Students record how many jumping jacks they can do in ten seconds and use their knowledge of time conversions to figure out how many jumping jacks they could complete in a minute all the way to a year if they never tired. Students then organize class data and explore mean, median, and mode and the effects extreme values have on these measures. Students then brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages each measure offers.
3-5
In the first lesson (of two), students start a business from the ground up! Students collaborate to develop a product and are given a $1000 budget in which to start their business. Students participate in a live auction of real estate locations within the classroom, determine the wholesale prices of various products, and work together to develop an advertising campaign all to prepare for the big day- selling day!
3-5
This second lesson places students in the shoes of a real business owner. Students have chosen the products they want to sell, rented locations, and prepared advertising; now they get to experience the thrill of the sell as they spend their $200 on stores' merchandise(s). Students experience real-world applications of adding and subtracting decimals while learning what it means to be a smart consumer.
