Learning Links:
Surveys / Matrices / Budget / Marketing / Construction / Interest Schedules / Calculators / Computer Data / Displays / Census / Visual Art / Photography / Architecture / Diagnosis / Legal Proof / Mystery / Evidence
Demonstrators should be read from top to bottom, but need not be demonstrated sequentially.
Elementary Demonstrators
• Draw logical conclusions and explain the thinking processes used in solving problems.
• Communicate the meanings of number, space, change, data, and measurement using words, pictures, physical materials, and symbols.
• Select, apply, and justify appropriate mathematical procedures to solve real-life problems using whole numbers and simple fractions.
• Listen to, read about, write about, and speak about mathematical ideas and procedures.
Middle School Demonstrators
• Select, apply, and justify appropriate mathematical procedures to solve real-life problems using rational numbers.
• Model problem solving situations using oral, written, concrete, pictorial, graphic, and simple algebraic methods.
• Communicate the meanings of number, space, change, data, and measurement verbally, pictorially, symbolically, and concretely.
• Use deductive and inductive reasoning to synthesize information related to problems, making conjectures, exploring, validating, and convincing others.
High School Demonstrators
• Select, apply, and justify appropriate mathematical procedures to solve real-life problems using real numbers.
• Communicate the meanings of number, space, change, data, and measurement, formulating mathematical definitions and generalizations and utilizing technology.
• Use deductive and inductive reasoning to synthesize information related to problems, developing facility with mathematical language and notation.
Sample Teaching/Assessment Strategies:
Collaborative Process:
Cooperative Learning / Community-Based Instruction: Service Learning / Continuous Progress Assessment: Performance Events, Portfolio Development, Interviews / Problem Solving: Inquiry, Brainstorming, Research, Debate, Creative Problem Solving, Future Problem Solving / Technology/Tools: Computers, Calculators, Manipulatives, Games
These sample strategies offer ideas and are not meant to limit teacher resourcefulness. More strategies are found in the resource section.
Ideas for Incorporating Community Resources:
• Use Census Department data to investigate population trends.
• Invite local quilters to class to show examples of repeated patterns (tessellations) in quilts.
• Collect information from local insurance agents to compare rates for various cars and drivers.
• Visit local landscaping operation or botanical garden and design a landscape project for the community using native plants (e.g., on school grounds, city park, vacant lot, or homeless shelter). Contact agencies for technical assistance.
• Organize service projects that use measurement skills (e.g. assist in Habitat for Humanity home building, monitor local water quality, build picnic tables).
Core Concept: Accessing Sources
Sample Elementary Activities
• Design a quilt or T-shirt using geometric patterns. Explore the use of geometric patterns in art from a variety of cultures. PE, P
• Solve several different types of problems in which each team member uses a different method of computing (e.g., using a calculator, paper and pencil, mental math). Discuss which way of solving the problem is more efficient and why. OE
• Brainstorm patterns that can be identified in the environment, the home, a classroom, a closet, the zoo, a garden, a fruit and/or a fabric store. OE
• Group and sort buttons in a button box into sets based on type, color, size, number of holes, and shape. PE
Sample Middle School Activities
• Develop a set of directions for assembling a model that includes drawing and text. PE, OE, P
• Investigate Pascal's triangle to discover number patterns. Use these number patterns to aid problem solving. OE
• Determine if the local environment is being harmed by a certain behavior (e.g., littering, pollution). Analyze how the behavior, if continued, will affect the environment in the future and predict what actions could alter this trend. P
• Select an argument (e.g., changing tax structure, local bond issue) raised by a political candidate and determine the accuracy of the argument. OE, P
• Invent a "function machine." Display the results using computer graphics. PE, OE
Sample High School Activities
• Design an investigation to determine the amount of food being thrown away from the school cafeteria. Organize and analyze the data. Survey the student body for menu alternatives. Propose a menu based on the survey. Implement and repeat the study to evaluate the new menu. Use spreadsheets, word processing, and computer graphics to collect, manipulate, and present the findings, PE, OE, P
• Select stocks and create a database from tracking highs, lows, increases, decreases, and trends. PE, P
• Design an advertisement layout according to determined criteria for a product or location. PE, P
• Design a better container for a product and present an argument to convince the manufacturer to use the new container. PE, P
• Compute and graph fixed and variable interest rates on a home loan using appropriate computer software. Evaluate the graph to determine the best selection for a specified situation. Defend your choice. PE, P