Interactive Lesson on Relating Ratios to their Proportionate and Equivalent Forms

This lesson worked really well last week for all levels of classes because it scaffolded the thought process needed to find equivalent ratios. Student could manipulate the shapes and were encouraged to use ratio language to make sense this concept.

 

The video above gives a short preview/explanation of the lesson. Our school has access to the promethean board and ActivInspire so this is a flipchart and PDF student notes file and works best when students can utilize a computer individually in a computer lab setting or laptop cart setting. (If you are someone that may want a low tech version of this lesson, please contact me through TpT by finding this product and describing to me what you would like through the "QUESTION" prompt.) You can find this lesson at my store. This lesson is aligned with CCSS 6RP1 and includes answer keys describing how the lesson should progress.

Megalodon Investigation: Work Samples

Student Work Samples: Megalodon Investigation

Even though this is a 6th Grade Unit, I had some time between State Testing and the students going on Spring Break, so I decided to try this investgation out with my 7th graders. They really did a good job so I decided to display a few of my Top Notch Groups' work with you. You can find this investigation in my Common Core Ratios and Proportions Unit or you can download just the Megalodon Investigation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 



Megalodon: How Big Was It? Investigation Applying Proportionate Reasoning



I have recently been thinking about how to motivate my students to want to do the work that Common Core is requiring them to do. Then it hit me, the problems they are working on must be things that interest them. I decided to take a crack at writing something that  think would interest me. I have always been facinated by ancient creatures, the more menacing (as long as I know they are extinct) the more fascinated I was. YES, I was a big fan of Jurassic Park.

While thinking about how to apply this to 6th Grade Math, I came across this interesting video clip on You Tube from Animal Planet's "The Most Extreme: Ancient Ancestors" and I thought it would be a perfect application to the Ratio and Proportions Unit since the Megalodon was juts a much larger version of today's Great White shark.

One of my students actually brought in a REAL Megalodon tooth.
The other students (and also myself) were amazed to be able to see and touch
this rare fossil that is normally only seen behind glass.

 

From this video, I got the idea to create the following investigation.

 

 

 









Basically, the students are asked to look at a drawing of a Great White shark and based upon an information card about the actual Great White the drawing was in proportion to, determine the scale. Then the students have to create their own drawing of a Megalodon also to the same scale to get an idea of just how much bigger this shark was thought to be compared to the Great White.

 

This investigation was very fun and was easily applied to the 6th Grade Ratio and Proportions Unit. Please look at the sample portfolio below. If this unit looks like something you might want to use in your class, please visit http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Megalodon-How-Big-was-it-An-Investigation-Using-Proportionate-Reasoning to download the full investigation with all templates and supplementary materials. Also please check back here for more ideas for the Common Core.