standard_description: Understand that rewriting an expression in different forms in a problem context can shed light on the problem and how the quantities in it are related. For example, a + 0.05a = 1.05a means that “increase by 5%” is the same as “multiply by 1.05.”
problem_activity: Narrative
The purpose of this activity is for students to represent on paper the class data collected during the previous activity. Students determine how they want to represent their data which was represented by cubes in the previous activity. Representations may include squares (as cubes), tally marks, or number symbols. Students also label their representations.
Required Materials
Materials to Gather
Colored pencils or crayons
Connecting cubes
Materials from a previous activity
Required Preparation
Have extra copies of the three-column table from a previous lesson available for students.
Launch
Groups of 2
Give each group access to colored pencils or crayons and copies of the three-column table.
“We have to put the cubes away at the end of math, but we want to be able to see our class data tomorrow. With your partner, come up with a plan to show our data on paper.”
3 minutes: partner discussion
Activity
“Now each of you will show our class data on paper.”
10 minutes: independent work time
As students work, consider asking questions to help clarify representations:
“Which category is this? What can you do so others can tell what each category is on your paper?”
“What is the title of your data representation?”
Monitor for different representations that use squares, tally marks, and numbers to share during the synthesis of the next activity.
Student Facing
Show the survey data about our class’s favorite
___________________________________________________.
Student Response
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Activity Synthesis
“Now let’s see what we can learn about the representations of our class data.”


aligns: no