Resources

Illuminations: Maintaining the Balance

• Resource
• Evaluated by Allison Selden

This is a lesson from NCTM Illuminations and it is part of a larger unit called Exploration of a Balance. Each lesson in the unit is designed to target specific grade levels: Lesson 1 is PK-2, Lesson 2 is 3-5 and Lesson 3 is 6-8. These lessons build off of one another as students progress through the grade levels. This evaluation will focus on Lesson 2 for Grades 3-5. Through this lesson, students will learn how to determine the position necessary to balance uneven objects and the effect on balance of moving the fulcrum through hands-on activities.

Illuminations: All About Multiplication Unit

• Resource
• Evaluated by Allison Selden

All About Multiplication is a unit from NCTM Illuminations that has 4 lessons. Throughout these 4 lessons students explore several meanings and representations of multiplication (number line, equal sets, arrays, and balanced equations). They also learn about the order (commutative) property of multiplication, the results of multiplying by 1 and by 0, and the inverse property of multiplication. In addition, students write story problems in which the operation of multiplication is required. The 4 lessons for the All About Multiplication unit are:

1. Hopping on a Number Line
2. Exploring Equal Sets
3. Modeling Multiplication with Streets and Avenues
4. Balance Beam Discoveries

Eggstactly with a Dozen Eggs

• Resource
• Evaluated by Allison Pargoff

In Eggsactly with a Dozen Eggs, students begin looking at fractions as a part of a set. This lesson allows students to combine hands on skills with a technological approach as they begin to problem solve and justify their claims by investigating fractions that are a part of a group or set.

*This lesson is part of a larger unit from NCTM Illuminations: Eggsactly with Fractions

How Big Is The 2010 Guatemalan Sinkhole?

• Resource
• Evaluated by Caitlyn Reighly
• Other Grades: 6th-8th
• Other Areas: Number and Operations in Base Ten, NGSS Earth & Human Activity

If you want to combine math and science in your classroom, Robert Kaplinsky has crafted the perfect lesson for you. By setting up the challenge for students (the mysterious appearance of a real sinkhole in Guatemala in 2010), offering digital media links and excerpts from articles, Kaplinsky has introduced students to how both math and science can be used together in real life. In this lesson, you will challenge students to determine how much material is needed to fill the sinkhole, offering them the chance to learn about volume and calculate the cost of the needed materials. Further extensions could be added to explore the causes of the sinkhole and how it is a result, in part, of human activity.

Oil, Oil Everywhere

• Resource
• Evaluated by Caitlyn Reighly
• Other Areas: Geometry, Numbers & Operations - Fractions, NGSS Earth & Human Activity

The concepts of surface area and estimation are applied to science as students investigate the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Students learn how oil interacts with water when they try their hands at creating their own "spills." The lesson provides resources to help students move beyond the topics of surface area and estimation and into the realm of science with regard to studying the impacts of human activity and oil spills.

Illuminations: Working with Shapes Lesson

• Resource
• Evaluated by Allison Selden

This is a lesson from NCTM Illuminations and it is part of a larger unit called Geometry in the World of Art. This is the first lesson out of a total of six lessons. All of the lessons are targeted for grade levels 3-5 and can be adjusted/differentiated/enriched as necessary by the teacher for their students' abilities. The lessons progressively build off of one another and students are required to apply concepts and understanding they learn in one lesson to the others as they go. This lesson, Working with Shapes, specifically focuses on the review of basic geometric terms related to triangles. They take part in a guided exploration of these terms and other geometric concepts by modeling them on a geoboard (physical or virtually via the connected interactive applet, Virtual Geoboard)

*This lesson is part of a larger unit called Geometry in the World of Art.