LESSON PLAN FOR SUNDIAL HISTORY

 

NAME:  Janie McMillin

 

 

NAME OF LESSON:  History of Sundials

 

DESCRIPTION OF CLASS:   High school Pre-Calculus Class

 

 

TEKS ADDRESSED:

            Pre-Calculus:

 (a)  General requirements.                

   (b)  Introduction.  

(2)  As students do mathematics, they continually use problem-solving, language and communication, connections within and outside mathematics, and reasoning. Students also use multiple representations, applications and modeling, justification and proof, and computation in problem-solving contexts.

 

 

OVERVIEW:

 

            Students will do a history project on the history of the sundial, this will be done in a group setting.  The students will use books and internet sources to do their project.  The project outline will include answers to the following questions:

 

1)    A brief outline of the development of sundials of the ages

2)    At least 3 different sundials that exist and how they work

3)    What mathematical concept and formulas are used to create a sundial

 

 

PERFORMANCE AND LEARNER OUTCOMES

Student will:

     1) Incorporate historical mathematical concepts with present day concepts

     2) Understand the relationship of math to everyday needs and the need for math in society

     3)Familiarized with using on-line resources to complete tasks

 

 

FIVE E-ORGANIZATION

 

ENGAGEMENT:

            The teacher will ask how and where sundials were first created.  The students will brainstorm idea about were they think this device was initially created and these ideas will be written on the board for everyone to see.   Then the next question posed to the students will be what level of math was used to create these sundials.  These ideas will also be listed.

EXPLORATION:

            The class will begin a discussion over which ideas seem valid and most accurate and tell their reasons why.  The teacher should have minimum involvement but should make sure that the students do not get off topic.

EXPLANATION:

            After the discussion the teacher will assign groups, hopefully combining students with different levels of knowledge about the actual information for the project.  This way every group is equally balanced.  The teacher will explain the format of the time line and the expectations of the project.

 

ELABORATION:

            While there is not much elaboration to this lesson, students may find more information then needed.  The teacher should point out that any information that is not required for the project that the students find interesting, they can include to enhance their final project.

 

EVALUATION:

            The time line will be evaluated and compared to other projects to see if they are similar.  The students will also discuss their misconceptions they initially had and what they have learned by doing the project.