Subject Area
Math

Activity Overview
You have been asked to apply your math knowledge to the cloning of another sheep. This time scientists would like to make the animal 20% bigger than the original. What are the new measurements of the cloned sheep that they have produced.

Objective
Students will calculate the measurements of the cloned sheep.

Materials
paper and pencil
calculator
math journal

Activity Outline (procedure steps)
Students will need the following in order to complete this activity:
The sheep weighs 140 pounds, 3 feet tall from the top of the head to the ground, and 4 feet long from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail.

If necessary, discuss the use of the calculator.

Break students into pairs, then have students:
1. Estimate in their journal how big the sheep would be with a 20% increase, 30% increase, and 40% increase.
2. Figure a 40% increase without making any calculations other than the ones that you did for 20%.
3. Discuss with their partner whether cloning is ethical or acceptable.
4. Use the math journals to reflect their estimate and real answer and see how close they are.
5. Check with another person to see if their answers are close to one another, reflect on why or why the answers weren't the same.

Assessment Options
Check the accuracy of their answers in their journals.

Standards and Benchmarks
Standard 1: Uses a variety of strategies in the problem-solving process
1. Understands how to break a complex problem into simpler parts or use a similar problem type to solve a problem
5. Represents problem situations in and translates among oral, written, concrete, pictorial, and graphical forms
6. Generalizes from a pattern of observations made in particular cases, makes conjectures, and provides supporting arguments for these conjectures
7. Constructs informal logical arguments to justify reasoning processes and methods of solutions to problems

Standard 3: Uses the basic and advanced procedures while performing the processes of computation
3. Selects and uses the appropriate computational methods (e.g., squares and square roots, cubes and cube roots)
7. Knows when an estimate is more appropriate than an exact answer for a variety of problem situations

Standard 4: Understands and applies basic and advanced properties of the concepts of measurement
8. Selects and uses appropriate estimation techniques (e.g., area, volume, surface area) to solve real world problems

Standard 7: Understands and applies basic and advanced concepts of probability
3. Understands how predictions are based on data and probabilities (e.g., the difference between predictions based on theoretical probability and experimental probability)

Standard 8: Understands and applies basic and advanced properties of functions and algebra
11. Understand the properties of arithmetic and geometric sequences (i.e., linear and exponential patterns)

Standard 9: Understands the general nature and uses of mathematics
2. Understands that mathematics often represent real things using abstract ideas like numbers or lines; they work with these abstractions to learn about the things they represent