Act 1
How many Kerbey Lane pancakes would it take to go from Austin to Denver?
Write down a guess.
Act 2
3. What information would be useful to figure this out?
4. Write down some questions you have in your head right now.
Students need to know the distance between the two cities, so I set up a Google Maps Engine for them to play with.
Here is a quick tutorial on the Maps Engine.
And here’s the actual distance if technology isn’t in the plans.
Two more pieces of information, the pancake size and box details.
Act 3
Sequel
5. How much would it cost to buy all of those pancakes?
6. How much would it cost to pancake the distance from your house to your school?
I really like this idea. Students could make a Google Maps Engine with their school and house on it. This also provides an interesting situation because students have to find the best route to their house.
Standards
Common Core
5.MD.A.1 - Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems.
7.NS.A.2 - Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division and of fractions to multiply and divide rational numbers.
TEKS
4.8(B) - convert measurements within the same measurement system, customary or metric, from a smaller unit into a larger unit or a larger unit into a smaller unit when given other equivalent measures represented in a table
7.3(B) - apply and extend previous understandings of operations to solve problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of rational numbers