In the Mapping Earthquakes to Save the World activity, students leverage real-time data to plot earthquakes on a world map. The fate of the world is in their hands – the President of the United States has asked for their help to save humankind. Students identify patterns in their data and connect earthquakes with tectonic plates, making recommendations back to the President about where people are safe and where people are most at risk. This activity was heavily inspired by a project from the Stevens Institute for Technology Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education.

Students use gumdrops and toothpicks to make lithium atom models. Using these models, they investigate the makeup of atoms, including their relative size. Students are then asked to form molecules out of atoms, much in the same way they constructed atoms out of the particles that atoms are made of. Students also practice adding and subtracting electrons from an atom and determining the overall charges on atoms.

In this Cyberchase video segment, the CyberSquad locates the Cyberchase Council by using negative numbers.

Adult Learners will review the previous lesson, measuring with a thermometer, to continue their application in horizontal number lines. Learners will use the number line to increase their understanding of integer values as well as apply their understanding to solving real world problems.

This is the third of six lessons teaching basic concepts related to positive and negative integers. This lesson will review previous knowledge about negative numbers and teach adding integers with the same sign, with connections to “real life” situations such as gains and losses in football yards or bank account overdraws.

This module contains the basic operations with real numbers from Elementary Algebra by Denny Burzynski and Wade Ellis, Jr.

Rational Numbers

Type of Unit: Concept

Prior Knowledge

Students should be able to:

Solve problems with positive rational numbers.
Plot positive rational numbers on a number line.
Understand the equal sign.
Use the greater than and less than symbols with positive numbers (not variables) and understand their relative positions on a number line.
Recognize the first quadrant of the coordinate plane.

Lesson Flow

The first part of this unit builds on the prerequisite skills needed to develop the concept of negative numbers, the opposites of numbers, and absolute value. The unit starts with a real-world application that uses negative numbers so that students understand the need for them. The unit then introduces the idea of the opposite of a number and its absolute value and compares the difference in the definitions. The number line and positions of numbers on the number line is at the heart of the unit, including comparing positions with less than or greater than symbols.

The second part of the unit deals with the coordinate plane and extends student knowledge to all four quadrants. Students graph geometric figures on the coordinate plane and do initial calculations of distances that are a straight line. Students conclude the unit by investigating the reflections of figures across the x- and y-axes on the coordinate plane.

Students watch a video showing the highest and lowest locations on each of the continents. Then they create a diagram (a number line) for a book titled The World’s Highest and Lowest Locations. Students show four of the highest elevations and four of the lowest elevations in the world on their diagrams.Key ConceptsA complete number line has both positive numbers (to the right of 0) and negative numbers (to the left of 0).Negative numbers are written with a minus sign—for example, –12, which is pronounced “negative 12.”Positive numbers can be written with a plus sign for emphasis, such as +12, but a number without a sign, such as 12, is always interpreted as positive.Every number except 0 is either positive or negative. The number 0 is neither positive nor negative.Goals and Learning ObjectivesCreate a number line to show elevations that are both above and below sea level.

The purpose of this task is for students to apply their knowledge of integers in a real-world context.

Students use the scientific method to determine the effect of control surfaces on a paper glider. They construct paper airplanes (model gliders) and test their performance to determine the base characteristics of the planes. Then they change one of the control surfaces and compare the results to their base glider in order to determine the cause and effect relationship of the control surfaces.

In the Mapping Earthquakes to Save the World activity, students leverage real-time data to plot earthquakes on a world map. The fate of the world is in their hands – the President of the United States has asked for their help to save humankind. Students identify patterns in their data and connect earthquakes with tectonic plates, making recommendations back to the President about where people are safe and where people are most at risk. This activity was heavily inspired by a project from the Stevens Institute for Technology Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education.

In this video from Cyberchase, Harry must score a total of 50 points in various events to qualify for the Northern Hemisphere games in New Orleans.

Navigate the number line while diving amidst shipwrecks and sunken ruins. Will you find a pearl, or an old boot? Watch out for the electric eel! Pearl Diver teaches properties of numbers, how to plot numbers, how to visualize quantity on the number line, how to order numbers, and how to use the number line as a visual model for mathematical operations.

In this hands-on activity rolling a ball down an incline and having it collide into a cup the concepts of mechanical energy, work and power, momentum, and friction are all demonstrated. During the activity, students take measurements and use equations that describe these energy of motion concepts to calculate unknown variables, and review the relationships between these concepts.

This resource links to both the Fractions progression document published by the Common Core Writing Teams in June 2011 and the Module posted on the Illustrative Mathematics website.

Students are familiar with the number line and determining the location of positive fractions, decimals, and whole numbers from previous grades. Students extend the number line (both horizontally and vertically) in Module 3 to include the opposites of whole numbers. The number line serves as a model to relate integers and other rational numbers to statements of order in real-world contexts. In this module's final topic, the number line model is extended to two-dimensions, as students use the coordinate plane to model and solve real-world problems involving rational numbers.

Whole numbers are no better than any others! Practice plotting values on the number line as a passionate activist rises up and demands equity for all numbers, including fractions and decimals.

The first two parts of this task ask students to interpret the meaning of signed numbers and reason based on that meaning in a context where the meaning of zero is already given by convention.