The purpose of this activity is to engage students in using the information provided on tables and charts to solve a problem.
This activity assumes the students have experience in the following areas:
The problem is sufficiently open ended to allow the students freedom of choice in their approach. It may be scaffolded with guidance that leads to a solution, and/or the students might be given the opportunity to solve the problem independently.
The example responses at the end of the resource give an indication of the kind of response to expect from students who approach the problem in particular ways.
On a high tide at St Clair Beach, waves can splash up and drench the footpath. Use the tide table below to work out which would be the best time, during the day, to see this happen on the next Sunday.
(Tide chart from Otago Daily Times, 29/10/2014)
The following prompts illustrate how this activity can be structured around the phases of the Mathematics Investigation Cycle.
Introduce the problem. Allow students time to read it and discuss in pairs or small groups.
Discuss ideas about how to solve the problem. Emphasise that, in the planning phase, you want students to say how they would solve the problem, not to actually solve it.
Allow students time to work through their strategy and find a solution to the problem.
Allow students time to check their answers and then either have them pair share with other groups or ask for volunteers to share their solution with the class.
The student uses the tide table for Friday to make predictions for high tide times on Sunday.
Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close.
The student extends the graph of tides on Friday to include Saturday and Sunday and makes a prediction about the best time to visit St Clair walkway.
Printed from https://meaningfulmaths.nt.edu.au/mmws/nz/resource/big-splash at 8:51pm on the 26th February 2024