Jimmy set up a ramp for his toy cars. He and his brother Joe each sent one car down the ramp.
We gathered to think about the provocation. Here are some of our initial wonderings.
I wonder…
- … whose car is faster.
- … whose car goes straight
- … if the car falls down
- … how the ramp is made
- … if the cars fall down from the side of the ramp
- … what Jimmy used for the ramp
- … who pushed it down first
- … whose car is slower
Joe’s car rolled 15 centimetres farther than Jimmy’s.
1) If Joe’s car rolled 27 centimetres (cms), how far did Jimmy’s car roll?
How could you get started?
2) Does this problem make you think about addition or subtraction?
3) Whose car rolled farther? Draw a number line to model the problem.
4) Follow Up:
Make your own ramp with books, cardboard, or other materials you find. Roll 6 different objects down the ramp and measure how far they go.
5) Record your data on a table.
6) Make up your own story problem with the results.
We began to construct some questions that we might want to ask about the data in our table.
Mr. Matt worked with the students to help them create questions using ‘Question Words’.
Sample Student Questions:
we wonder what YOUR ramps might look like…