Math_shipwreck

It would be fun to use this activity to reinforce/reintroduce coordinate planes and graphing. I would begin by grouping students and giving them a worksheet on which to graph points in all four coordinate planes. This ensures that they truly understand the concept of graphing and does not involve the higher levels of thinking as much as it does knowledge and comprehension. Then, I would have the students do some research on the Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary and find a map of the waters. The next step would be to map out (to scale) the section of water that they would choose to excavate on a piece of graph paper. Once the area is mapped out, they need to choose the points on the coordinate plane (their map) that correspond to the exact sites in which they would like to explore. Perhaps treasure has drifted from the original site and they wish to excavate other areas. Or, the teacher could claim that they researchers were off and they had the wrong area to excavate in the first place. Then, the groups’ goal could be to find the best sites to explore and plot points at those sites while justifying their reasoning for choosing those locations. Either way, this activity would work very well if it was coordinated with both the social studies teacher and the math teacher. The following internet sites could help the students prepare themselves for the second half of the activity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavernier%2C_FL and http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/research_monitoring/map.html. Holly Miller, Crescent Middle School.

I would like to use this lesson with my special education math students using it as an activity to reinforce cooridinate planes and graphing. I would have my students plot points on a grid and play battleship with the grids. I would first explain how to plot the points and practice with them on the overhead projector. My students could only win if they can correctly write the coordinates where the ships were plotted. I know it sounds kind of simplistic but this is where my students are and they could learn from playing the game. Vickie Parris