THE MORIKAMI AREA LESSON

Designed for a 50 min. Class

Grade Level: 7th Grade

Materials: pencil, paper, Morikami museum map (handout), calculator (optional)

Objective: The students will be able to calculate the area of squares and rectangles. The students will also be able to solve the area of a room in the shapes of rectangles and squares together.

Mathematical concepts: length, width, area

NCTM Standards: Standard 1 Mathematics as problem solving, Standard 12 Geometry

Procedure:

1) Spend about 5-10 minutes explaining Japanese culture, The Morikami Museum, and how the Japanese have added to the culture in Florida. Use the Internet site listed below for much of this information or contact the museum.

2) Begin to explain how to find area. Start with the area of a rectangle

L x w = area of rectangle.

Example: 4 cm x 5 cm = 16 square cm

Note: Remember to explain the units. Area is always units squared.

Area of a square is the length of a side squared.

L x w = area of square where length and width are equal.

Example:6 m x 6 m = 36 square meters

3) Do three more simple examples on the board asking the students to guide you though.

4) Now show how to solve some tougher problems. For example, a rectangle added to a square.

Divide shape into squares and rectangles they can solve for. In this example, we would add the area of a rectangle and a square.

8 m x 4 m = 32 m squared

2 m x 2 m = 4 m squared

32 m squared + 4 m squared = 36 m squared

Example 2: A square cut out of a rectangle:

In this example we would subtract the area of the rectangle minus the area of the square. (Note: Remember to show students how to find the length of a side that is not labeled by finding a side that has an equal value or subtracting or adding different values)

7 m x 3 m = 21 square meters

2 m x 2 m = 4 square meters

21 m - 4 m = 17 square meters

5) Do one more example guided by the students. Now pass out the Morikami museum floor plan. Work with the students to divide the rooms into squares and rectangles to solve for the area. The students will be finding the area of each room. Spend the remainder of the class period working on the floor plan.

Evaluation: The students will find the area of each room and the area of the whole museum. A map of the museum is located on the web site. You will have to add some lengths and widths to the sides of each room for the students to be able to solve for area.

References: http:www.icsi.com/ics/morikami/

Contributors: Major: Kari Kupfer
Minor: Carol A. Marinas