Rovers - 5th Grade G/T Math
Combining many math standards, we put our engineering skills in action and built Mars rovers to honor NASA's current Mars rover, Curiosity. We discovered how to work with fractions, decimals, measurement, and statistics, using hands-on discovery learning. We had a lot of fun and learned many things along the way!
1. First we visited the Computer Lab to do some research on Curiosity, so we could understand the main parts and important information about a real Mars rover.
2. The first challenge was to build a rover, with specific measurement limitations, that could carry the payload of a Dixie cup.
3. And we continued to engineer our rovers...
4. It was finally test-time. How far would our rovers travel when rolled down a ramp? We conducted three trials and calculated the average distance.
5. Once we had our average roll data, we changed a variable - the weight of the payload. We tested the rolling distance with the weight of 25, 50 and 100 pennies to see how the weight of the payload would effect the distance traveled. At this point, we were learning about statistics, so we were able to use our rover data once again to learn math.
7. More math with the rovers??? Yup - the rover had to be crated up, of course, and to construct a crate, you have to know a lot about measurement and calculation of fractions and mixed numbers. And in the end, you learn some geometry as well!
8. What's a rover crate without a logo? Using ratio, percent, and a lot of mathematical calculation, we created mosaic logos for our rover crates.
8. Ta-da!
9. And we finally have a mathematically designed rover, crate, and logo, all boxed up as one!!!!