Earthkeepers® Education Programs

Math in Nature

Concepts

  1. Math is useful for people of many professions, including Gardeners and Entomologists (insect scientists).
  2. Collecting and recording data can be fun, and it gives students "ownership" of the data.
  3. Solving Math problems related to real life and using your own data is more interesting than text-book problems.

Program Objectives

Garden Tour Objectives:

  1. Students learn and/or practice how to read and accurately record temperature and time data in a table format.  (Texas Discovery Gardens will provide thermometers, clocks and tape-measures)
  2. Students learn and/or practice using tape-measures to measure length, width and height in a garden setting.
  3. Students learn how to observe, count, 'tally' and categorize common garden insects.

Post-Visit Worksheets:

  1. Students learn and/or practice drawing tables, bar charts, line graphs and circle graphs.
  2. "Warm-up" questions ask students to solve garden-related problems such as perimeter, area and volume.
  3. Older grades include questions on symmetry, reflection and rotation 

Post-visit Worksheets  vary by grade, average 12 pages in length, and are set out like TAKS tests.  The worksheets are designed to be flexible and each page can be used as a separate topic, and/or pages can be skipped or added to dependent on class progress.   Worksheets can be used at the start of the year to determine class aptitude, in the middle of the year to introduce bar, line and circle graphs, or at the end of the year as either test preparation or a 'reward' while incorporating math revision. 

'Math in Nature' Packet Contents:

  1. Vocabulary List
  2. List of suggested pre-visit activities
  3. Template for visit Worksheet and Post-Visit Worksheets
  4. List of post-visit curriculum integration activities and resources

TEKS Correlations:

Each grade's worksheet was developed around TEKS requirements. 

MATH Grade 2: 2 (A,B); 3(B); 7(A,B); 9(A,B,C); 10; 11; 12 (A,D); 13;   

SCIENCE Grade 2.1(A); 2(A,E,F); 4(A); 8(A); 9(A,B,C)

MATH Grade 3: 2(A-D); 5(A); 9(A,C); 11; 12; 13; 14; 15 (A,C,D); 16

SCIENCE Grade 3: 1(A); 2(B-E); 4(A); 5(A,B); 8(A-D); 9 (A,B); 10(A,B); 11(B)  

MATH Grade 4: 2(A,C); 4(A,D); 5(A); 8(B); 9; 12; 13(C); 14(C)

SCIENCE Grade 4: 1(A,B); 2(A-E); 3(F); 4(A); 5(A,B); 6(A,C); 8(A,B); 9(B); 10(A); 11 (A,C)  

MATH Grade 5: 2(B); 4(A,B); 10; 11(A); 13; 14; 15

SCIENCE Grade 5: 1(A,B); 2(A-D); 5(A,B); 6(A,C); 9(A,B,C); 10(A); 11(A)

 

 

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