Lesson 13

Designing a 5K Course

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13.1: Make a Proposal (10 minutes)

CCSS Standards


Addressing

Routines and Materials


Instructional Routines

Required Materials

Optional activity

In this activity students return to the context of designing a 5K walk-a-thon that was introduced in an earlier lesson. They use a map or satellite image of the school grounds to decide where the path of the 5K course could be and estimate how many laps it would take to complete 5 kilometers. Ideally, one lap should be about 500 meters, because in the next activity, students will use their trundle wheels to measure the course they have designed.

If possible, each group chooses their own course, to help them take ownership of their work and for a greater variety of solutions. Alternatively, the whole class can come to an agreement on one path, to streamline the process if time is limited.

Launch

Keep students in the same groups of 3–4 from the previous lesson. Distribute maps or printed satellite images of the school grounds. Give students 10 minutes of group work time.

Action and Expression: Internalize Executive Functions. Provide students with a graphic organizer for data collection and organizing information about methods, lengths of estimations and revisions between the two measurements of the course.
Supports accessibility for: Language; Organization
Speaking: MLR8 Discussion Supports. To help students use mathematical language while reasoning about their length estimations, invite students to use a sentence frame such as: “We estimate the length of our course is ___ because . . . ." Encourage students to consider what details are important to share and to think about how they will explain their reasoning using mathematical language. Invite students to consider and respond to the reasonableness of each others' estimates.
Design Principle(s): Support sense-making

Student Facing

Your teacher will give you a map of the school grounds.

  1. On the map, draw in the path you measured earlier with your trundle wheel and label its length.

  2. Invent another route for a walking course and draw it on your map. Estimate the length of the course you drew.

  3. How many laps around your course must someone complete to walk 5 km?

Student Response

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Anticipated Misconceptions

Students may not have a good sense of scale and may be hesitant to estimate the length of their course. Encourage them to use the path they measured before as a guide. Tell them that whatever their estimate is, it will be wrong. They will get a chance to measure the course and to revise their plan.

Activity Synthesis

Students check with the teacher about their proposed courses and then move on to the next activity.

13.2: Measuring and Finalizing the Course (30 minutes)

CCSS Standards


Addressing

Routines and Materials


Instructional Routines

Required Materials

Optional activity

Students measure their proposed 5K courses with their trundle wheels. They compare their measurements with their estimates and make final adjustments to their proposed courses. Then they draw a finalized version of their course on the map (or a second copy of the map) including all the details necessary to organize the race: start and finish locations, walking direction, and number of laps.

Launch

Keep students in the same groups. Provide access to trundle wheels. Tell students to measure their proposed race course twice, record their measurements, and then to come back to the classroom to finish the computations and revisions.

Student Facing

  1. Measure your proposed race course with your trundle wheel at least two times. Decide what distance you will report to the class.

  2. Revise your course, if needed.

  3. Create a visual display that includes:

    • A map of your final course

    • The starting and ending locations

    • The number of laps needed to walk 5 km

    • Any other information you think would be helpful to the race organizers

Student Response

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Student Facing

Are you ready for more?

The map your teacher gave you didn't include a scale. Create one.

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

Ask students to display their maps and explain their proposed race courses. Consider doing a gallery walk. Encourage students to discuss any assumptions they made to complete their calculations as well as any revisions they made to their plan after measuring their proposed course.

Representing, Conversing: MLR7 Compare and Connect. Use this routine to help students consider audience when preparing a visual display of their work. Ask students to consider how to display their proposed race courses so that another student can interpret them. Groups may wish to add notes or details to their drawings to help communicate their thinking. Provide 2–3 minutes of quiet think time for students to read and interpret each other's displays before they discuss any assumptions they made to complete their calculations as well as any revisions they made to their plan after measuring their proposed course.
Design Principle(s): Cultivate conversation; Maximize meta-awareness