Science curriculum map:
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NYS Past Test
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NYS Past Test
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NYS Past Test
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NYS Past Test
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Strategy to ACE your State Test.
There are many
questions on the state test such as extended response questions. These are typically the questions that students
struggle with the most - and as a result, their test scores
suffer.
The solution to this problem is to have students write more in math. Students must solve problems and then explain the process involved. The word problem must be practiced on a consistent basis; it must drive the mathematics instruction in each and every classroom. |
Solutions: Incorporate Web 2.0 multimedia technology (i/e blogs or wiki)
We will begin using
blogs as apart of our extended responses in class. Results: Students get the benefit of expressing their thoughts and publish it for critique and feedback from both teachers and peers.
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A vacation paradise Webquest http://www.glencoe.com/sec/math/prealg/prealg03/webquest/index.php4/na/unit1
Vacation Travelers Include More Kids Introduction | Task | Process | Guidance | Conclusion | Questions
Introduction
USA Today, November 17, 1999
Taking the kids with you is increasingly popular among American, according to a travel report that predicts an expanding era of kid—friendly attractions and services.
Commissioned by Better Homes & Gardens, the April survey was based on interviews with 1,500 adults conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America. It found that 87 percent of adults love to travel with their children, and that kids went along on 72 percent of all vacation trips in 1998.
In all, vacation trips with children were up 5 percent over the year before. Travel parties with children included trips with grandparents and friends, and 20 percent of the trips spanned three family generations.
"The number of family vacations that include children have increased by 55 percent since 1992, and the family travel market is booming," said Peter Mason, who is director of the travel marketing group of Meredith Corp., which includes Better Homes & Gardens.
"The next millennium is going to see an expanding era of kid-friendly attractions, services and destinations to cater to this surging phenomenon."
The Task
You are currently working part—time as a travel agent. Your supervisor at the travel agency wants to offer a special vacation for families. He wants you to design three different 7—day vacation packages for a family — two adults and two children. The packages must cost from $2500 to $5500 for transportation, entertainment, and lodging. Food costs will not be included in the price of the package. You are to design a brochure or Web page showing the three options. Your brochure or Web page must include the following information:
- the type of transportation from your city to the destination;
- a description of the entertainment, with a day—by day schedule;
- a description of the lodging;
- a graph or table showing the average temperatures for each month for the particular destination.
To successfully complete this project, you will need to complete the following items.
- Find a mode of transportation for each vacation from your city. Several transportation options include airlines, trains, and busses. Be sure to record the costs of each option for your report to the travel agency. For help, try these Web sites.
www.4airlines.com
www.delta.com
www.yahoo.com
www.nwa.com
www.amtrak.com
www.greyhound.com
www.expedia.com - Find lodging for each vacation. You may want to consider motels, hotels, and rental condominiums. Be sure to record the costs for each option for your report to the travel agency. For help, try these Web sites.
www.travelocity.com
www.yahoo.com - Determine what type of entertainment will be offered with each vacation package. You may want to consider amusement parks, museums, tours, and national parks. Be sure to record the costs for each option for your report to the travel agency. Check Web sites for different state that you are interested in for tourist attractions. For help, try these Web sites.
www.funguide.com
www.yahoo.com
www.excite.com - Find a yearly weather summary for each vacation destination. Record the average temperatures for each month and prepare a graph or table of the data. For help, try this Web site.
www.weatherbase.com - sure that the vacations are within the given price range.
- Be creative. Add some additional data, information, or even pictures to your brochure or Web page.
Here are some additional questions and ideas you may want to consider for your project.
- Will the cost of each vacation be the same at all times of the year?
- What factors might affect the cost of the vacation package?
- What type of graph would be best for showing the temperature variations for the travel destination?
- Would the Internet be a useful tool in estimating the cost of meals, since meals are not included in the plan?
- How could you use a spreadsheet to find the cost of different vacation packages?
Here are some ideas for concluding your project.
- Present your project to your class or at a family night.
- Present the information on a Web page. Have other students critique your project and help you to make improvements to your project.
- Write a one-page summary of your project, including what you have learned from researching this topic.
- Interview a travel agent to learn how they help families plan their vacations.
A student collected these data about the average high and low temperatures for Orlando, Florida, using the Internet.
- Let numbers represent the months. For example, let 1 be January, 2 be February, and so on. Write two sets of ordered pairs. The first set will be (month, high temperature) and the second set will be (month, low temperature).
- Construct a scatter plot of the data. Let the horizontal axis represent months and the vertical axis represent temperatures. Plot the first set of ordered pairs with a red colored pencil. Plot the second set of ordered pairs with a blue colored pencil.
- Describe the two scatter plots.
- Why would travelers be interested in your scatter plot?
A popular amusement park offers a discount if you buy 4 tickets or more. The regular price of the tickets is $50 and the discount is $5 per ticket when buying 4 or more.
- Show how you can use integers to find the total cost of 4 tickets with the discount.
- Write an algebraic expression to show the cost of any number of tickets t using the discount. Assume that the number of tickets is always 4 or more.
For a particular vacation, the cost of each round—trip airline ticket is $275.00, the cost of each night's lodging is $99.00, and the cost of amusement park tickets for each person for the entire seven days is $254.00.
Links to FREE stuff:
Pictures:
FreePhotos Sound
http://covenantworks.com/Bouncy-A/Math/Operations/index.htm
Click this link to try a dozen different games and practice your number skills! http://covenantworks.com/Bouncy-A/Math/MultiPlayer/index.htm Sharpen your skills by playing your friends on these multiplayer games! http://www.coolmath4kids.com/ Not only are there great games here, but lesson practice you can learn from while having fun! Integer Bulletin Board IDEAS
Solar System Math1. Review planet order and relative sizes in our solar system.
Display the NASA illustration: All Planet Sizes. Ask students to point out the location of Earth. Then challenge them to identify all of the planets, outward from the sun (left to right): inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars; outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Remind students that Pluto is no longer considered a planetin our solar system; it was downgraded to the status ofdwarf planet in 2006. Point out the locations of the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) and Kuiper belt (past Pluto) if they were included in this illustration. Explain to students that the illustration shows the planets in relative size. Ask:What do you think relative size means? Elicit from students that the pictures show how big the planets are when compared to each other and to the sun. Ask: Which planet is the smallest? (Mercury) Which is the largest? (Jupiter) 2. Have students gather data and compare planet sizes. Divide students into small groups. Distribute one copy of the worksheet Planetary Size Comparison to each group. Have groups use the Planet Size Comparison interactive to find and record data on planet diameters and ratios. Ask:
3. Build background about the astronomical unit (AU). Explain to students that an astronomical unit, or AU, is a simplified number used to describe a planet’s distance from the sun. It is a unit of length equal to the average distance from Earth to sun, approximately 149,600,000 kilometers (92,957,000 miles). Only Earth can be assigned AU 1. Planets farther away would have AU greater than 1; planets closer would have AU less than 1. Ask: Why do you think scientists find it helpful to use astronomical units? (Possible response: Distances in the solar system are very large. Using AU helps keep the numbers manageable, or smaller, so we can easily calculate very large distances.) What are the challenges of using kilometers or miles instead? (Possible response: Using kilometers or miles would make calculations more difficult and could produce errors in measurements required to accurately send a probe or lander to another planet.) Explain to students that the astronomical unit provides a way to express and relate distances of objects in the solar system and to carry out astronomical calculations. For example, stating that the planet Jupiter is 5.2 AU (5.2 Earth distances) from the sun and that Pluto is nearly 40 AU allows you to more easily compare the distances of all three bodies. 4. Introduce the modeling activity. Tell students that they are going to stand in for the planets and planetary objects in order to create a model of relative planetary sizes and relative distances. Display the NASA illustration: How Big is the Sun? to give students a sense of the relative sizes of planets compared to an everyday object like a basketball. Make sure students understand that the distances between the planets are very large compared to the sizes of each planet. This makes it extremely difficult to create an exact scale of our solar system, so this activity will focus on the distance comparison. 5. Have groups create models of relative planetary distances. Divide students into groups of 9, 10 or 11, depending on class size. (If 9, one student represents the sun and the remaining students represent 8 planets; If 10, the sun, planets, and asteroid belt; If 11, the sun, planets, asteroid belt, and Kuiper Belts) Take students to a large area, such as the gymnasium or empty parking lot. You’ll need enough space for each group to spread out and create their model, using the following scale, with each step equaling approximately 1 meter (about 3.28 feet):
6. Have students make a math connection. Distribute copies of the worksheet Stepping Out the Solar System to each group. Have students recalculate the number of paces for each planet’s orbit, as constrained by the size of the available area. Use the provided answer key to check groups’ work. Then have students recreate the model. Informal AssessmentHave students work independently to summarize, in writing, what they learned about our solar system, including:
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/reaching-new-heights.cfm |
Links to FREE stuff
http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-YouTube-Download.htmhttp://www.coolmath4kids.com/
Look here under "Lessons/Practice" for topics that will help you with your homework, and have fun at the same time! http://www.mathgoodies.com/forums/ There are many good explanations to problems for middle schoolers under "Basic Math and Pre-algebra" http://www.linktolearning.com/math.htm All kinds of homework help and interactive lessons on tons of topics! http://www.khanacademy.org 10 minute mini lessons on topics we are studying in class. If your student has trouble with the homework, this site will explain the material clearly and concisely, with guided examples. Primes PosterPi Poster
Place Value Mats for Cards
Here's an idea I have used for several years with any age child. I pass out the large manila paper and have the children make a hot-dog fold. They use one of their playing cards (they all have decks) for a pattern and make 5 different boxes in a row, placing a comma between the thousands and hundreds place. They may only use their "one digit" cards. ("A's" are ones.) They then pick the first 5 cards and place them in the place value spots. We play several rounds of this game. Sometimes we play for the largest number in their groups and sometimes the smallest, but it helps them with place value and learning to read larger numbers. Then they each have to read their numbers outloud to their team members. I keep the mats in a stack all year and we re-use them on a regular basis. They beg to play this game and get really good! http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/ideas/subj_math.htm Foldable Ideas
Subjects
Arrange students into groups of two or more. Have students deal out as many cards as possible from a deck of cards, so that each student has an equal number of cards. Put aside any extra cards. Explain to students that every black card in their pile represents a positive number. Every red cards represents a negative number. In other words a black seven is worth +7 (seven), a red three is worth 3 (negative 3). Note: If this game is new to students, you might want to discard the face cards prior to dealing. If students are familiar with the game, or if you want to provide an extra challenge, leave the aces and face cards in the deck. In that case, explain to students that aces have a value of 1, jacks have a value of 11, queens have a value of 12, and kings have a value of 13.At the start of the game, have each player place his or her cards in a stack, face down. Then ask the player to the right of the dealer to turn up one card and say the number on the card. For example, if the player turns up a black eight, he or she says 8.Continue from one player to the next in a clockwise direction. The second player turns up a card, adds it to the first card, and says the sum of the two cards aloud. For example, if the card is a red 9, which has a value of -9, the player says 8 + (-9) = (-1)The next player takes the top card from his or her pile, adds it to the first two cards, and says the sum. For example, if the card is a black 2, which has a value of +2, the player says (-1) + 2 = 1.The game continues until someone shows a card that, when added to the stack, results in a sum of exactly 25. Extra Challenging Version To add another dimension to the game, you might have students always use subtraction. Doing that will reinforce the skill of subtracting negative integers. For example, if player #1 plays a red 5 (-5) and player #2 plays a black 8 (+8), the difference is -13: (-5) - (+8) = -13 If the next player plays a red 4, the difference is -9: (-13) - (-4) = -9. [Recall: Minus a minus number is equivalent to adding that number.]Adapting for Special Students For students who find the game too challenging, you might change the sum you're aiming for to a number less than 25. The game will end more quickly. As students become more comfortable with the game, you can gradually increase the numeric goal. AssessmentObserve student play. Support students who are having difficulty. After the game ends, have students write about it in their math journals; they might explain the rules in their own words, for example. Bank Account
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