Collecting the rays
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L240
A lesson plan for Grade 3 Mathematics and Science
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- 3
- Subjects
- mathematics (algebra, measurement, number sense, number theory), science (environmental science, space exploration, technology and innovation)
- Provider
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Legal
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In this lesson, students explore how variations in solar collectors affect the energy absorbed. They make rectangular prisms that have the same volume but different linear dimensions. Students investigate relationships among the linear dimensions, the area, and the volume of rectangular prisms. Illuminations provides detailed instructions for completing the lesson.
Students will:
- Develop spatial sense.
- Explore linear dimensions, area, volume, time, and temperature.
- Relate geometric ideas to number and measurement ideas.
- Recognize and appreciate geometry in the world.
NCTM Standards and Expectations:
- Represent the idea of a variable as an unknown quantity using a letter or a symbol.
- Understand such attributes as length, area, weight, volume, and size of angle and select the appropriate type of unit for measuring each attribute.
- Describe classes of numbers according to characteristics such as the nature of their factors.
- Understand various meanings of multiplication and division.
- Understand the effects of multiplying and dividing whole numbers.
- Identify and use relationships between operations, such as division as the inverse of multiplication, to solve problems.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Mathematics (2004)
Grade 3
- Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will model, identify, and compute with whole numbers through 9,999.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for whole numbers through 9,999.
- Connect model, number word, and number using a variety of representations.
- Build understanding of place value (ones through thousands).
- Compare and order.
- Objective 1.04: Use basic properties (identity, commutative, associative, order of operations) for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
- Objective 1.06: Develop flexibility in solving problems by selecting strategies and using mental computation, estimation, calculators or computers, and paper and pencil.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for whole numbers through 9,999.
- Goal 2: Measurement - The learner will recognize and use standard units of metric and customary measurement.
- Objective 2.01: Solve problems using measurement concepts and procedures involving:
- Elapsed time.
- Equivalent measures within the same measurement system.
- Objective 2.02: Estimate and measure using appropriate units.
- Capacity (cups, pints, quarts, gallons, liters).
- Length (miles, kilometers).
- Mass (ounces, pounds, grams, kilograms).
- Temperature (Fahrenheit, Celsius).
- Objective 2.01: Solve problems using measurement concepts and procedures involving:
- Goal 5: Algebra - The learner will recognize, determine, and represent patterns and simple mathematical relationships.
- Objective 5.03: Use symbols to represent unknown quantities in number sentences.
- Objective 5.04: Find the value of the unknown in a number sentence.
Grade 4
- Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will read, write, model, and compute with non-negative rational numbers.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for rational numbers 0.01 through 99,999.
- Connect model, number word, and number using a variety of representations.
- Build understanding of place value (hundredths through ten thousands).
- Compare and order rational numbers.
- Make estimates of rational numbers in appropriate situations.
- Objective 1.02: Develop fluency with multiplication and division:
- Two-digit by two-digit multiplication (larger numbers with calculator).
- Up to three-digit by two-digit division (larger numbers with calculator).
- Strategies for multiplying and dividing numbers.
- Estimation of products and quotients in appropriate situations.
- Relationships between operations.
- Objective 1.05: Develop flexibility in solving problems by selecting strategies and using mental computation, estimation, calculators or computers, and paper and pencil.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for rational numbers 0.01 through 99,999.
- Goal 5: Algebra - The learner will demonstrate an understanding of mathematical relationships.
- Objective 5.02: Translate among symbolic, numeric, verbal, and pictorial representations of number relationships.
Grade 5
- Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will understand and compute with non-negative rational numbers.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for rational numbers 0.001 through 999,999.
- Connect model, number word, and number using a variety of representations.
- Build understanding of place value (thousandths through hundred thousands).
- Compare and order rational numbers.
- Make estimates of rational numbers in appropriate situations.
- Objective 1.03: Develop flexibility in solving problems by selecting strategies and using mental computation, estimation, calculators or computers, and paper and pencil.
- Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for rational numbers 0.001 through 999,999.
- Goal 5: Algebra - The learner will demonstrate an understanding of patterns, relationships, and elementary algebraic representation.
- Objective 5.02: Use algebraic expressions, patterns, and one-step equations and inequalities to solve problems.
Science (2005)
Grade 3
- Goal 3: The learner will make observations and use appropriate technology to build an understanding of the earth/moon/sun system.
- Objective 3.01: Observe that light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object and is reflected and/or absorbed.
- Objective 3.02: Observe that objects in the sky have patterns of movement including:
- Sun.
- Moon.
- Stars.
- Objective 3.03: Using shadows, follow and record the apparent movement of the sun in the sky during the day.
Grade 5
- Goal 4: The learner will conduct investigations and use appropriate technologies to build an understanding of forces and motion in technological designs.
- Objective 4.06: Build and use a model to solve a mechanical design problem.
- Devise a test for the model.
- Evaluate the results of test.
- Objective 4.06: Build and use a model to solve a mechanical design problem.
