Living The Good Life

The Declaration of Independence states that we have a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Sure, we get to pursue (or look for) happiness, but how do we find it? What is the key to happiness in life? It is never too early to try and figure it out, and in this project, living the good life will be your mission! In this project, the students study happiness by reading and analyzing short stories about what it means to be happy. Then, they conduct a research project to try and learn more about happiness from informational texts. Is there scientific data that can predict happiness? Have success and happiness appeared in the news? The students find out first hand! Once they find some credible and relevant articles, they identify the central idea in one and explain how it develops with facts and details. Instead of just writing about these stories and articles, they get to share their ideas in a brand new way: a podcast, in a format of their own radio show. Finally, they end the project by writing an essay where they share their philosophy on the good life--because today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Living the Good Life Final Essays

Mathematics

Dividing Fractions: In this unit, you examine the meaning of division and the relationship between multiplication and division. You extend your current understanding of division to include fractions, including learning an algorithm and why the algorithm makes sense. This enables you to solve problems involving lengths, areas, or volumes of figures that have fractional side lengths. You use some familiar representations, such as tape diagrams, equations, and expressions, to represent fraction division. You learn to work flexibly between a multiplication or division equation and a situation that the equation could represent.

Arithmetic in Base 10: In this unit, you estimate and compute sums, differences, products, and quotients of whole numbers and decimals. You learn and use algorithms for doing this, and use them to solve problems in real-world contexts.