The Sunroom - 8's & 9's

COW MATHS?!?

Cows are good for more than you might think. As a provocation for some mathematical thinking the question was posed:

How much of Victoria would be taken up by dairy cows if they all stood in one herd?

This question touches on a diverse range of mathematical concepts, skills and understandings. We focused on a useful problem solving strategy – solve something similar, but simpler.

Q. Who in your group has a foot that roughly takes up the same area as yours?

Connecting concrete understandings to the more abstract and formal.

We continued to explore and build the conceptual understanding required to answer the original provocation using the same strategy of ‘similar but simpler’.

Similar??? We think so!!

How many exercise books are needed to cover the area of the kitchen table?

After establishing that the cow is an irregular shape, the groups created a rectangle that the cow roughly filled.

Again, in order to continue to reinforce the concept of area, we looked at how many of us could cover the same area as the cow!

Formalising our thinking around area/measurement.

Q. How many cm2 does the cow approximately take up on the mat?

Michael Price and Sophie Dall'Ava

8s & 9s classroom teachers

sophia.dall'ava@preshil.vic.edu.au michael.price@preshil.vic.edu.au