Tree-mendous Plots
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Algebraic Thinking Focus
Gathering and graphing real world data is a valuable experience for students. It helps them to develop an understanding of coordinates and what the overall graph represents. Students need to interpret grpahs beginning in elementary and middle school as an important part of their preparation for the formal study of algebra.
Lesson Objective
Students record and graph data. In groups they will work together to interpret the graphs. Finally, students will write stories that will correspond to given graphs.
Overview of the Lesson
Students plant seeds and, once the seeds sprout, record the change in height of the plants for several days. In groups or individually, they make graphs to display the data and then predict how the future growth may appear on the graph. Students continue to gather data, complete, and interpret the graphs. Then students work in small groups to write and appropriate story about the life cycle of a plant that corresponds to a graph they are given.
This lesson was adapted from Changes Over Time: A unit of Investigations in Number, Data, and Space.
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