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Setting
the Stage
- Have
your students sit in
groups or
teams. Hand out
the student page to
each student.
- Ask
the students to carefully look at the cartoon. Ask
them to figure out two things that are problematic
with
the sign. In other words, (1) what was the mistake
that was made and
(2) why is
the sign making the driver smile.
Doing
the Activity
- The
students should try to answer the question on their
own in the space
provided.
Then they should discuss with their group members
and come up with the
group's
best answer. One of the group members can be the
spokesperson for the
group. As you go
around to each group and see what
they are writing down, you might notice comments such
as: "There should be a comma between
the 1 and
the 8 in 1802 not realizing that "Founded" makes
reference to a year."
- They
also may not be aware of the meaning of altitude,
though most 6th
graders have seen word population. They many need
help in seeing that
adding
years + feet + people does not produce a meaningful
number independent
of
whether the numbers are added properly or not.
Debriefing
the activity
- Each
group shares their answers with the rest of the
class.
- The
teacher helps them to understand why the sign
doesn't make sense.
Comments
on doing the Activity
- What
the students will probably see is that the sum
should be 6,122 instead
of
5,122. They should be able to explain that the
thousandths column was
not added
properly. More challenging for students who focus on
getting the
"right" (and only?) answer is answering the second
part. (What else is
"wrong" with it? Why
is the driver smiling?)
- Understanding
the
road
sign is a prerequisite for realizing that finding a
sum for this
problem
does not make sense. For example, students could be
asked what 3 apples
+ 5
shoes + 7 doorknobs equals? They might be tempted to
say "15 items"
which could be argued as correct. But the overriding
question of
whether it
makes sense to do this addition is the main point of
this discussion.
This
problem and the Bus problem that follows are good
examples of problems
you
should do with your students to reinforce that make
sure that answers
are
meaningful and "make sense."
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