Description
What our Time, Distance and Speed lesson plan includes
Time, Distance and Speed teaches students a particular type of rate called a unit rate through time, distance, and speed. This rate will help them learn to compare items using a denominator. At the end of this lesson, students will be able to solve unit rate problems, including unit pricing and constant speed. This lesson is for students in 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. An optional addition to the lesson activity is to have your students graph their results for each car. For an additional activity, you could have your students develop their own activity for a partner to solve using three items of their choice. Finally, you could invite a buyer employed by a large store to speak to your class about pricing and sales in stores.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
TIME, DISTANCE AND SPEED LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Unit Rates
The Time, Distance and Speed lesson plan includes two content pages. A unit represents one of something. A unit rate means that you have a rate for that one thing.
Let’s look at an example. In PE class, a student runs 250 feet in 10 seconds. This means they ran an average of 25 feet in 1 second. Both of these are rates, but 25 feet in 1 second is a unit rate. You always write unit rates with a denominator of 1 because it expresses one unit.
Cheetahs can run 60 feet in 4 seconds and pumas can run 100 feet in 8 seconds. Which is faster? In this problem, you’re trying to find out which animal is faster. Finding the unit rate for each animal will tell you which is faster. Cheetahs run 60 feet in 4 seconds. 60 /4 = 15, so they run 15 feet in 1 second. Pumas run 100 feet in 8 seconds. 100 / 8 = 12.5, so they run 12.5 feet in 1 second. The cheetah runs faster because it runs farther in one second!
Let’s look at another example. Say you go grocery shopping for apples to make a pie. You need 10 pounds of apples, which costs $15.40. $15.40 for 10 pounds of apples equals $1.54 for 1 pound of apples. $1.54 for 1 pound of apples is a unit price. Unit prices are helpful when shopping to figure out the best deal on what you need to buy.
Advertisements for groceries sometimes include a unit price. Let’s say an advertisement says that broccoli is on sale for $1.23 for 3 pounds. Another store is selling broccoli for $0.76 for 2 pounds. Which store has the better deal?
At the first store, broccoli is $1.23 for 3 pounds. 1.23 / 3 = 0.41, so it costs $0.41 for 1 pound. At the second store, broccoli is $0.76 for 2 pounds. 0.76 / 2 = 0/38, so it costs $0.38 for 1 pound. Therefore, the second store has a better deal on broccoli.
TIME, DISTANCE AND SPEED LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Time, Distance and Speed lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
ULTIMATE CAR ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity worksheet, students will find the best car in each category (speed, gas, and cost) by writing each rate and comparing each unit rate. They will then circle the vehicle they think is the best overall and answer a few questions about how why made that choice.
WORD PROBLEMS PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to solve four word problems, showing their work.
TIME, DISTANCE AND SPEED HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Like the practice worksheet, the homework assignment asks students to solve word problems and show their work. They will also write a complete sentence to answer each question.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
