Table of Contents
- Content Home
- 3 Foot, 6 Foot, 9 Foot
- Anti Gravity
- Drawbridge
- First Impressions
- Group Jump Rope
- Magic Maze
- Moving Marbles
Overview- Props & Setup
- Instructions
- Safety
- Variations
- Reflections
- Sample Story
- Academic Extension
- Social Extension
- Grab it and Go
- Perfect Square
- Speed
- Spider's Web
- Structure
- Virtual Group Juggle
- Winding Down
Math Content Strand
This activity requires students to get their marble through five tubes as quickly as possible, while following all of the requirements. This could be a good opportunity to introduce or reinforce the concept of "speed" or, more specifically, "velocity."
Ask students to define the term "speed." What does speed mean? What units are usually used? Some typical answers might be, how "fast" something travels, the distance something can travel in a certain amount of time, and fast for a car might be 100 miles/hour.
Try to emphasize that speed is made up of two parts-- the distance, and the time. For example, if you just say that someone traveled 2 miles, that doesn't indicate how fast they traveled. But add that it took them 5 seconds, and you might think, "that's fast!"
The formula for determining speed is distance divided by time. Speed = distance / time. If we are to figure out how fast the marble traveled, we need to figure out how far it traveled, and how long it took it. Does anyone know how long a tube is? If you used a regular piece of paper, then it's either 8 1/2 inches or 11 inches, depending on how it was rolled. Multiply that by five, and you're almost there. Don't forget the distance it had to travel on the ground!
Next, we need the time. Decide whether you'll use minutes or seconds. (Using seconds will require converting every minute to 60 seconds.)
To determine the average speed of that marble in the tube, just divide the distance (five tubes plus final distance on ground) by the time (in minutes or seconds). You will probably need a calculator!
What do the students think about the speed they came up with? Is it totally accurate? Why or why not?
Standards
This activity supports: California Academic Content Standards - Mathematics - Four - Algebra and Functions. Students use and interpret variables, mathematical symbols, and properties to write and simplify expressions and sentences. Standard 1.4: Use and interpret formulas (e.g., area = length * width or A = lw) to answer questions about quantities and their relationships.