Using Water Efficiently
5 min
Teacher Prep
Setup
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to elicit the idea of comparing and quantifying water flow, which will be useful when students estimate the water usage of a bath or shower in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about these images, the important discussion point is quantifying the rate of water flow.
This Warm-up prompts students to make sense of a problem before solving it by familiarizing themselves with a context and the mathematics that might be involved (MP1).
Launch
Arrange students in groups of 2. Display the images for all to see. Ask students to think of at least one thing they notice and at least one thing they wonder. Give students 1 minute of quiet think time, and then 1 minute to discuss the things they notice and wonder with their partner.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There are two photos of water coming out of a pipe or hose.
- In one photo, the water is flowing into a bathtub.
- In the other photo, the water is being sprayed into the ocean.
- There is more water in the ocean than the bathtub.
- There is more water flowing out of the big hose than the bathtub spout.
Students may wonder:
- Where were these photos taken?
- How long will it take to fill the bathtub?
- Why is the person spraying water into the ocean?
- How much more water is coming out of the big hose than the bathtub spout?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
Ask students to share the things they noticed and wondered. Record and display their responses for all to see without editing or commentary. If possible, record the relevant reasoning on or near the images. Next, ask students, “Is there anything on this list that you are wondering about now?” Encourage students to respectfully disagree, ask for clarification, or point out contradicting information.
If comparing or quantifying the water flow from each pipe does not come up during the conversation, ask students to discuss this idea.
Consider asking questions such as:
- “Which pipe has more water coming out of it? About how many times more water?”
- “How could we measure the amount of water coming out of a pipe?”
Standards
- 7.RP.2·Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.
- 7.RP.A.2·Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.
20 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
No KCs tagged for this lesson
Using Water Efficiently
5 min
Teacher Prep
Setup
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to elicit the idea of comparing and quantifying water flow, which will be useful when students estimate the water usage of a bath or shower in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about these images, the important discussion point is quantifying the rate of water flow.
This Warm-up prompts students to make sense of a problem before solving it by familiarizing themselves with a context and the mathematics that might be involved (MP1).
Launch
Arrange students in groups of 2. Display the images for all to see. Ask students to think of at least one thing they notice and at least one thing they wonder. Give students 1 minute of quiet think time, and then 1 minute to discuss the things they notice and wonder with their partner.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There are two photos of water coming out of a pipe or hose.
- In one photo, the water is flowing into a bathtub.
- In the other photo, the water is being sprayed into the ocean.
- There is more water in the ocean than the bathtub.
- There is more water flowing out of the big hose than the bathtub spout.
Students may wonder:
- Where were these photos taken?
- How long will it take to fill the bathtub?
- Why is the person spraying water into the ocean?
- How much more water is coming out of the big hose than the bathtub spout?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
Ask students to share the things they noticed and wondered. Record and display their responses for all to see without editing or commentary. If possible, record the relevant reasoning on or near the images. Next, ask students, “Is there anything on this list that you are wondering about now?” Encourage students to respectfully disagree, ask for clarification, or point out contradicting information.
If comparing or quantifying the water flow from each pipe does not come up during the conversation, ask students to discuss this idea.
Consider asking questions such as:
- “Which pipe has more water coming out of it? About how many times more water?”
- “How could we measure the amount of water coming out of a pipe?”
Standards
- 7.RP.2·Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.
- 7.RP.A.2·Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.