Through this lesson and its series of hands-on mini-activities, students answer the question: How can we investigate and measure the inside of an object or its structure if we cannot take it apart? Unlike the destructive nuclear weapon test (!), nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods are able to accomplish this. After an introductory slide presentation, small groups rotate through five mini-activity stations: 1) applying Maxwell’s equations, 2) generating currents, 3) creating magnetic fields, 4) solving a system of equations, and 5) understanding why the finite element method (FEM) is important. Through the short experiments, students become familiar with the science and physics being used and make the mathematical connections. They explore components of NDE and see how engineers find unseen flaws and cracks in materials that make aircraft. A pre/post quiz, slide presentation and worksheet are included.

Students have the opportunity to create and interpret data from simple daily questions.

The purpose of this task is to give 4th grade students a problem involving an unknown quantity that has a clear visual representation. Students must understand that the four interior angles of a rectangle are all right angles and that right angles have a measure of 90_ and that angle measure is additive.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders about finding the amount of water with illustrations and calculations.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders about finding the capacity of water with illustrations (metric units).

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about finding the total amount of liquid in liters and milliliters.

The concept of geocaching is introduced as a way for students to explore using a global positioning system (GPS) device and basic geographic information (GIS) skills. Students familiarize themselves with GPS, GIS, and geocaching as well as the concepts of latitude and longitude. They develop the skills and concepts needed to complete the associated activity while considering how these technologies relate to engineering. Students discuss images associated with GPS, watch a video on how GPS is used, and review a slide show of GIS basics. They estimate their location using latitude and longitude on a world map and watch a video that introduces the geocaching phenomenon. Finally, students practice using a GPS device to gain an understanding of the technology and how location and direction features work while sending and receiving data to a GIS such as Google Earth.

Students take on the role of geographers and civil engineers and use a device enabled with the global positioning system (GPS) to locate geocache locations via a number of waypoints. Teams save their data points, upload them to geographic information systems (GIS) software, such as Google Earth, and create scale drawings of their explorations while solving problems of area, perimeter and rates. The activity is unique in its integration of technology for solving mathematical problems and asks students to relate GPS and GIS to engineering.

In this activity students practice measuring techniques by measuring different objects and distances around the classroom. They practice using different scales of measurement in metric units and estimation.

Module 3 begins by extending students’ kindergarten experiences with direct length comparison to indirect comparison whereby the length of one object is used to compare the lengths of two other objects.  Longer than and shorter than are taken to a new level of precision by introducing the idea of a length unit.  Students then explore the usefulness of measuring with similar units. The module closes with students representing and interpreting data.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

In this 12-day Grade 2 module, students engage in activities designed to deepen their conceptual understanding of measurement and to relate addition and subtraction to length.  Their work in Module 2 is exclusively with metric units in order to support place value concepts.  Customary units will be introduced in Module 7.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

Module 2 uses place value to unify measurement, rounding skills, and the standard algorithms for addition and subtraction.  The module begins with plenty of hands-on experience using a variety of tools to build practical measurement skills and conceptual understanding of metric and time units.  Estimation naturally surfaces through application; this transitions students into rounding.  In the module’s final topics students round to assess whether or not their solutions to problems solved using the standard algorithms are reasonable.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

In this 20-day module students explore area as an attribute of two-dimensional figures and relate it to their prior understandings of multiplication. Students conceptualize area as the amount of two-dimensional surface that is contained within a plane figure.  They come to understand that the space can be tiled with unit squares without gaps or overlaps.  They make predictions and explore which rectangles cover the most area when the side lengths differ.  Students progress from using square tile manipulatives to drawing their own area models and manipulate rectangular arrays to concretely demonstrate the arithmetic properties. The module culminates with students designing a simple floor plan that conforms to given area specifications.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

This 10-day module builds on Grade 2 concepts about data, graphing, and line plots. The two topics in this module focus on generating and analyzing categorical and measurement data.  By the end of the module, students are working with a mixture of scaled picture graphs, bar graphs, and line plots to problem solve using both categorical and measurement data.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

Module 2 uses length, mass and capacity in the metric system to convert between units using place value knowledge.  Students recognize patterns of converting units on the place value chart, just as 1000 grams is equal 1 kilogram, 1000 ones is equal to 1 thousand.  Conversions are recorded in two-column tables and number lines, and are applied in single- and multi-step word problems solved by the addition and subtraction algorithm or a special strategy.  Mixed unit practice prepares students for multi-digit operations and manipulating fractional units in future modules.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

In this 20-day module, students build their competencies in measurement as they relate multiplication to the conversion of measurement units.  Throughout the module, students will explore multiple strategies for solving measurement problems involving unit conversion.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

In Module 1, students’ understanding of the patterns in the base ten system are extended from Grade 4’s work with place value of multi-digit whole numbers and decimals to hundredths to the thousandths place. In Grade 5, students deepen their knowledge through a more generalized understanding of the relationships between and among adjacent places on the place value chart, e.g., 1 tenth times any digit on the place value chart moves it one place value to the right. Toward the module’s end students apply these new understandings as they reason about and perform decimal operations through the hundredths place.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

After students observed, analyzed, and classified objects by shape into pre-determined categories in Module 2, they now compare and analyze length, weight, volume, and, finally, number in Module 3. The module supports students’ understanding of amounts and their developing number sense. The module culminates in a three-day exploration, one day devoted to each attribute: length, weight, and volume.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

This task adds some rigor to the activity of growing bean plants. By collecting growth data, students practice measuring and recording length measurements.

Students visit second- and fourth-grade classes to measure the heights of older students using large building blocks as a non-standard unit of measure. They also measure adults in the school community. Results are displayed in age-appropriate bar graphs (paper cut-outs of miniature building blocks glued on paper to form bar graphs) enabling a comparison of the heights of different age groups. The activities that comprise this activity help students develop the concepts and vocabulary to describe, in a non-ambiguous way, how heights change as children age. This introduction to graphing provides an important foundation for creating and interpreting graphs in future years.