An AskERIC Lesson Plan
Submitted by: Michael Anderson
Date: December 06, 1996
Unit Plan Outline
This unit is designed to help 7th and/or 8th grade students develop an understanding of the metric system. Its' purpose is to help them discover the need for a universal measurement system as well as the basic fundamentals of one such system that is already in place within most of the counties around the world.
Unit Objectives
By the end of this unit the students will have:
Unit Content Outline
Lesson Plan
Apple Estimation
Grade Level/Subject: Grade 7/Math
Preparation
Objective: The student will use estimation, calculation of percentages and metric system forms of weight measurement.
Materials: One apple and napkin per student, one or more scales with metric units of measurement.
Introduction
Set: Have a class discussion about percentage and what students consider to be the edible part of the fruit.
Communication of purpose: Divide class into cooperative learning groups. Handout apples and napkins. Have students estimate what part or percentage of the apple is edible.
Body of Lesson
Presentation: Instruct students to weigh apples with napkins and record the results on paper. Students then eat their apples, saving all the uneaten parts on their napkins. Instruct the students to then weigh the uneaten portion with their napkins and record that weight. Processing: Students will subtract the weight of the uneaten part from the whole weight to find the weight of the edible part. Students will then divide the edible weight be the whole weight to find a percentage.
Monitoring: Continuous observation will be done to monitor the students participation and accuracy throughout the activity.
Closing
Have one person from each group record the data from each person; then have them repeat their findings to their group. The groups then compare the results with the estimations and one group member presents the data to the rest of the class.
Assessment
Assessment will be made based on observation made during the activities and the results of the group assignments.
Content and Application: A Self-Evaluation
The lesson that I'm going to evaluate was the one I did on November 14, 1996 for Ms. Kelley's 7th grade class at Frontier Junior High. The lesson was an "Introduction to Metrics" and all in all it went pretty well. I used a method of presenting the material that I saw in a "stem system" book. It started the lesson with an activity that allowed the students to see the need for a universal form of measurement. I have always been a big fan of teacher directed self-discovery. Also, I feel as though I went over the metric units enough as to provide the students ample opportunities to "catch on". We went forwards, backwards, center out and 26d outside in; as well as students providing answers to questions. At the end of the unit I actually let them do the 1st section on their homework sheet and then we corrected it as a class; I think this too helped some of the students that might have resisted asking or answering questions.
The main point of the lesson? Not enough time. I hurried over benchmarks and estimation; basically just putting it off for another day. If I could do anything different it would be to have an additional day, or days specifically set aside for these other areas.
It was too much "new" information for one day. 0