The following common core content standards will be addressed throughout the unit as students are driven through the project through guiding activities and mini-problems. The students (mostly 9th graders) in such an Algebra I course will focus on skills regarding rates, conversions, graphing, and data interpretation.
CSS.Math.Content.HSA-CED.A.1 Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems.
CSS.Math.Content.HSA-CED.A.1 Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems.
- As students collect data on the cost of bus mileage and miles per gallon for different fuel sources, they will need to make graphs for the use of fuel over time. These graphs will require the development of an equation to fit the data and make predictions about future fuel use.
- Students will consider the mixing of fuels and the proper balance of biofuels and diesel to make a minimal cost and carbon emission solution. This will require an equation for fuel efficiency and an equation for cost, with biofuel and diesel as the variables.
- This applies specifically to the Candle Lab, where students are constructing graphs of time vs. mass and can see if it is a linear relationship and compare these relationships among different types of candles. Additionally, they will need to create an equation for their graph, which will relate the variables of time and candle mass.
- As students find data regarding fuel efficiencies and cost of biofuels and diesel, they need to make graphical representations and see how those relationships change over time. See the description for HSA-CED.A.1 for more detail.
- These graphical relationships are covered in more detail in the Carbon Cycle Activity as students create the trend of carbon molecule motion with time in each sphere.
- In the Class Trip Entry Event, students will need to calculate the rate of gas consumption for the bus as well as potentially read the mileage for a bus from a table of data to determine the expense of the trip.
- From the graphs of data created, students may need to approximate the miles per gallon (and fuel efficiency) of different fuels
- In the Carbon Cycle Activity, students will see graphs with different functions and need to interpret what the unit of time might represent and the number of carbon molecules.
- The information of the Carbon Cycle Activity and their future graphs will help them establish the importance of data types and labels for their parameters.
- Again, in the Carbon Cycle Activity, there will be graphs that change according to different functions and students will be able to compare the difference in these changes in other graphs.
- Again in the Class Trip Entry Event, students are using their knowledge of rates and miles per gallon to determine the total cost of gas in their travel.
- Students can use ratios in The Lemonade Mix Activity and create the percentages of materials to understand the real world application of the "best" tasting lemonade.