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Subject Area
Math
Activity Overview
You have been commissioned to create a biosphere (a zone of terrestrial
life including water, land, and atmosphere) in your back yard. If
the mixture of plants to human life is 7:1, how many plants would
you need to keep this proportional balance? The number of humans
is 13.
Objective
Students will calculate and estimate the number of plants it will
take to create a harmonious biosphere.
Materials
paper and pencil
calculator
math journal
Activity Outline
Discuss the concept of estimation. If necessary, discuss how to
use a calculator.
Have students:
1. Estimate how many plants would be needed and write those totals
down in the journals.
2. Estimate how many humans are needed. What if the mixture was
28 plants? 14 plants? 33 plants?
3. Reflect in their journals their estimates, actual answers, and
why would their answers might be important for people in the present
time.
4. Check with another person to see if their answers are similar.
Why or why not?
5. Reflect in their journals and with a partner whether or not a
balance of seven plants to one human seems like a nice mix for their
biosphere.
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 (i.e., uses inductive reasoning)
7. Constructs informal logical arguments to justify reasoning processes
and methods of solutions to problems (i.e., uses informal deductive
methods)
Standard 3: Uses the basic and advanced procedures while performing
the processes of computation
3. Selects and uses the appropriate computational methods (e.g.,
mental, paper and pencil, calculator, computer)
7. Knows when an estimate is more appropriate than an exact answer
for a variety of problem situations
8. Understand the concepts of ratio, proportion, and percent and
the relationships among them
Standard 4: Understands and applies basic and advanced properties
of the concepts of measurement
8. Selects and uses appropriate estimation techniques (e.g., overestimate,
underestimate, range of estimates) 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 probabilities
and experimental probabilities)
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 experimental patterns)
Standard 9: Understands the general nature and uses of mathematics
1. Understands that mathematics has been helpful in practical ways
for many centuries
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
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