Once upon a time, math was taught as a series of algorithms to be memorized and then reproduced. It would be very easy for me to simply take the ideas of perimeter and area of a rectangle and teach the third graders the formulas (you know, area = base X height.) And you know, they would probably be able do quite well at calculating. However, it is 2013 and the focus in math is no longer simple memorization but application and exploration. With that in mind, my third grade group and I have been exploring the calculation of perimeter and area. To make it fun, we started with a birthday party. Our friend Julia got a new pet for her birthday. We knew that the dimensions of its cage was 20 steps by 8 steps. But how big is that? We went outside to find out. Julia's present was a surprise so we also had to make a guess as to what the surprise was (rabbit, dog or horse? What would fit?) Our exploration led us to realize standard units of measurement are necessary first of all! After working with perimeter for a time, we found out that there was 56 feet of fencing available (the perimeter measurement.) Our next task was to design a pen that would optimize the area for the new pet. Julia's problem took us a few days and some scaled drawings to determine the best plan. Turns out there are a lot of options for shape and area size of cages all with the 56 foot perimeter. Check out the photos page of the website to see all the pictures from our hard work. http://traceybean.weebly.com/photos.html (You'll also see pictures from our attempts to measure the area of an irregular shape - the third grade body! They worked to determine the area of skin. Using our new-found formula for the area of a rectangle, we began to apply that to simplify our work when calculating a larger object.)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
Sign-up for updates: |
Knowledge Peak | Blog |