Problem Solving
How can you use what you’ve learned to solve a real-world problem?
Goal:
Goal:
Practice!
Goal: Apply what you’ve learned in this lesson to solve a real-world problem.
Daniel’s uncle is planning to build a deck on the back of their house. Daniel offers to help his uncle. Click through the slides to see how they plan out the deck.
Planning the Space
Daniel and his uncle look at an overhead picture of their house to figure out where to put the deck.
Daniel’s uncle wants the deck to go along the back of their house. He wants it to stretch from the garage to the tree by the patio. On the overhead picture of their house, Daniel’s uncle draws dotted lines to show Daniel where he wants to put the deck. Daniel notices that the deck has right angles.
An image of Daniel's uncles house from above the home. He wants to build a deck on the back of the home. He has used dotted lines to show where he wants to put the deck. He labels the dotted area. Deck. He has also has the patio and garage labelled.
How to Measure the Space
Daniel’s uncle says that they need to go outside and measure the space where the deck will go. This will let them know how much wood to get. Daniel’s uncle tells him that they need to make 4 measurements:
- From the house to the back of the garage
- From the back of the garage to the tree
- From the tree to the patio
- From the patio back to the garage
As Daniel’s uncle talks about each measurement, he draws a couple more lines on the picture. The shape Daniel’s uncle drew looks familiar to Daniel.
An image of Daniel's uncles house from above the home. He has the deck sectioned off with a dotted line. He has labelled the four sides of the dotted line. It looks familiar to a shape with 4 right angles, 2 pairs of parrallel sides and 2 pairs of equal sides.
Making Measurements Easier
Daniel helps his uncle see that they don’t need to make 4 different measurements.
Daniel asks his uncle if each corner of the deck will have right angles. His uncle says yes because that will make everything easier. Daniel then tells his uncle that they don’t need to make 4 different measurements. Daniel’s uncle is confused. He asks Daniel to explain why. Daniel says it is because the shape of the deck is a rectangle. In a rectangle the opposite sides are equal. Daniel adds right angles and lines to the rectangle to show which sides are equal. Then, he erases the 3 and 4 from the picture.
An image of Daniel's uncles house from above the home. He has the deck sectioned off with a dotted line. He has labelled the four sides of the dotted line. He has marked the corners as right angles. He adds marks to the sides that are the same size. The 3 and 4 are earased from the sides.
Attributes to the Rescue
Daniel’s uncle confirms Daniel’s reasoning.
Daniel’s uncle is super impressed with what Daniel just explained! He takes another look at the picture of the house and agrees with Daniel. Daniel’s uncle tells him that because Daniel recognized the shape as a rectangle, he saved them a lot of time that they would have spent measuring. Daniel and his uncle go outside and write their measurements on the picture. Now they can go to the store to get supplies!
An image of Daniel's uncles house from above the home. He has the deck sectioned off with a dotted line. He has labelled the four sides of the dotted line. He has marked the corners as right angles. He adds marks to the sides that are the same size. The 1, and 2 are earased and now the top of the rectangle measures 24 feet and the side 6 ft.
Daniel’s uncle is also thinking about building a firepit just off the deck. He draws a picture of the firepit for Daniel. He tells Daniel the shape has equal sides and right angles. What shape did his uncle draw?
Daniel's uncles backyard. There is a new shape drawn in the backyard. It has 4 equal sides, and 4 right angles. It is marked firepit.
- rectangle
- square
- rhombus
- trapezoid
Think about the attributes of the shape that Daniel’s uncle describe. What shape does that sound like?
Correct! The shape is a square. It has 4 equal sides of equal length and 4 right angles.
Think about the attributes of the shape that Daniel’s uncle describe. What shape does that sound like?
Think about the attributes of the shape that Daniel’s uncle describe. What shape does that sound like?
Summary
Questions answered correctly:
Questions answered incorrectly: