Gold Seal Lesson:
Mending Fences

Copernicus Education Gateway

Subject:

Mathematics

Grade:

5-8

ICLE Standards:

Mathematics as Problem Solving: Use problem-solving approaches to understand and investigate mathematical content.

Measurement: Extend understanding of the concepts of perimeter and area; visualize and represent geometric figures; draw models of designs using scales.

Mathematics as Reasoning: Validate own thinking.

Performance Task:

Your local community has decided that a portion of the town park should be fenced in as a play area for preschoolers. They have asked you, as a member of the youth recreation committee, to help design the figuration for the play area. They have given you 100 feet of fencing in 4-foot sections and a 4-foot gate.

You may design any shape that you wish, rectangular, square, triangular, irregular, etc. You would like the playground to have a large area, but at the same time, you would like it to be an appealing shape. Therefore, your final shape doesn't have to have the greatest area, but should be one of the larger areas. Design at least five different shapes using all the fencing that you were given. Using a ruler, make a scale drawing of each of your designs. Compute the area of each design. Choose the one design that you feel provides the best playing area for the preschoolers and provide a justification for your choice.

Knowledge / Skills:

Perform operations with signed (positive and negative) numbers, including decimals, ratios, percents, and fraction.  (m1)

Understand the properties and classification of polygons of more than four sides (e.g., pentagon, hexagon, octagon, decagon, etc.).  (m26)

Use the technique of dimensional analysis to convert units of measure (e.g., convert km/hr to m/min).  (m33)

Rubric:

4 Points  = The student provides at least five designs, along with a scale drawing of each, which use the full amount of fencing and gate provided. All calculations are accurate. The student identifies the design to be used and gives a clear justification for the design chosen. Design is both creative and functional.

3 Points  =  The student provides only three or four designs with the full amount of fencing and gate provided. The student makes the scale drawings for each design proposed, but makes some minor errors in drawing them to scale. Only a couple of minor errors occur in the calculation of area. The student identifies the design to be used, but his/her justification is not clear and/or valid. The design is functional, but not necessarily creative.

2 Points  =  The student provides only two designs with the full amount of fencing. Scale drawings are either not provided or are inaccurately drawn. Errors occur in the few calculations provided. Although the student provides the design to be used, he/she does not provide a valid justification for its choice.

1 Points  =  The student provides at most one design with the full amount of fencing. Meaningful scale drawings are not provided. Calculations are missing or incorrect. No valid justification is given for the one design included.

Keywords:

GEOMETRY
AREA
POLYGONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL OBJECTS
PERIMETER STATISTICS
MEASUREMENT
COMPUTATION 
RATIOS

Grades:

Kg [] - 1 [] - 2 [] - 3 [] - 4 [] - 5 [X] - 6 [X] - 7 [X] - 8 [X] - 9 [] - 10 [] - 11 [] - 12 []

ICLE Application:

D

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