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Introduction to Area and Perimeter

In this module you will explore concepts and instructional strategies related to area and perimeter.

The objectives for this module are for you to:
1) Develop a better understanding of area and perimeter.
2) Examine examples of how to teach concepts related to area and perimeter.

Task 1- Task 2- Task 3

Task 1:

You have hexagon shaped tables in your school cafeteria. As you set up for the school fair, your Principal tells you that the tables need to share one side with another table. The picture below shows what 3 connected tables would look like.





If you can put one person on each side of the table how many people can you seat when you have 1 table? 2 tables? 3 tables? 4 tables? Do you see a pattern in the number of people that you can seat whenever you add one table? Can you write an equation that finds the number of people that you can seat for any amount of connected tables?

Try using this website to help you. The website will not let you arrange them in a straight line, but you can connect the yellow hexagons diagonally-- remember they have to share a side!

Put your work in a Word document that you will add to during this whole module.

 

Task 2:
Create a rubric to score the task that you just did. Make sure you include points for each part listed above.

Examine the student work samples here for the hexagon table task that you did in Task 1.

For each work sample, use the rubric to score the work. Using the guide on the right, write two questions for each student. One question should be to check for their understanding. One question should be higher-level (what if...?) to extend the students' thinking.

You will add all of this to the Word document above. The document should include your rubric, scores for the 4 work samples and questions for each student.

An example of a rubric is here. You may use similar categories if you wish or modify them as you see fit.

**Note- you will do the same process for a task from one lesson of your diagnostic project... see details here!

 

Task 3- Area
Go to the Area Explorer program.

Directions (here is a separate document for directions to print or open in a new window, if you would like)

We are going to explore the following task:
If you had 24 meters of fencing and needed to make a rectangular pen for your dog, what are the possible dimensions? Which dimensions would yield the largest area?

Go to the Area Explorer program.
Click the box "Only Draw Rectangular Shapes."
Enter 24 as the perimeter.
Click the Draw New Shape button.
Calculate the area and enter it in the blank.
Click the Check Answer button.
After you have seen five different rectangles, click the Compare Areas and Perimeters button.


Part 1 (Add to Word document from Task 1)
Using the data that you have generated, what rectangle has the largest area? What do you notice about the shape of the rectangle that leads the largest area- is it long and skinny or more square-like?

What if you had 32 meters of fencing, what dimensions do you think would yield the largest area? Use the website if you need. How large would that area be?

Posterous blog:
Part 1: Read Chapter 20 in My Kids Can about Tasha. Based on the tasks that we have looked at today with area and perimeter, and Tasha's story, how can you support students through points of frustration and help develop their independence as a mathematical learner?

Part 2:
Examine the Common Core Unpacking documents written by myself and Kitty Rutherford at DPI. You only need to read- 3rd grade pages 24-28 and 4th grade page 35. Based on what you know about moving from concrete--> representational --> transitional --> symbolic activities, how does the Common Core support this progression? How does the work with area in 3rd grade support what you did in ELED 5201 with multiplication models (arrays)?

 

Work due at the end of this module

Tasks 1 and 2: Word document submitted through Moodle. 2 parts- your work on the Hexagon task. Your rubric, scores of student work, and questions.

Task 3:  Add to Word document your work on the Area Explorer task. Post to Posterous. Make sure you are caught up responding to your classmates' posts up until this point. You will not respond to this post until next week.