Lesson 5

Creating Scale Drawings

Lesson Narrative

In previous lessons, students have used scale drawings to calculate actual distances. This is the first lesson where students use the actual distance to calculate the scaled distance and create their own scale drawings. They see how different scale drawings can be created of the same actual thing, using different scales. They also see how the choice of scale influences the drawing. For example, a scale drawing with a scale of 1 cm to 5 m will be smaller than a scale drawing of the same object with a scale of 1 cm to 2 m (since each cm represents a larger distance, it takes fewer cm to represent the object). This prepares them for future lessons where they will recreate a given scale drawing at a different scale. 

Noticing how scaled drawing change with the choice of scale develops important structural understanding of scale drawings (MP7).


Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Compare and contrast (orally) different scale drawings of the same object, and describe (orally) how the scale affects the size of the drawing.
  • Create a scale drawing, given the actual measurements of the object and the scale.
  • Determine the scale used to create a scale drawing and generate multiple ways to express it (in writing).

Student Facing

Let’s create our own scale drawings.

Required Materials

Required Preparation

Ensure students have access to geometry toolkits.

Learning Targets

Student Facing

  • I can determine the scale of a scale drawing when I know lengths on the drawing and corresponding actual lengths.
  • I know how different scales affect the lengths in the scale drawing.
  • When I know the actual measurements, I can create a scale drawing at a given scale.

CCSS Standards

Building On

Addressing

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