Problem Solving and the Common Core

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 15.05.04

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. Objectives
  4. Math Content Background
  5. Science Content Background
  6. Classroom strategies with activities
  7. Teacher’s Notes
  8. Notes
  9. Appendix I: Academic standards
  10. Appendix II: Basil and oregano problems
  11. Annotated Bibliography

Planting a Seed for Problem Solving

Christy Marie Schmidt-Applegate

Published September 2015

Tools for this Unit:

Math and Science; Science and Math.  Some say the two subjects go together as part of the “STEM” core within education.  If this is the case, then why are they taught separately?

Introduction

I have taught second grade at Springdale Elementary in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the past eight years.  My school has around six hundred students, which consist of four percent American Indian, nine percent African American, seventy-five percent Hispanic, twelve percent Caucasian and five percent multi-racial.  They are mostly from low income, high poverty families.  Ninety-five percent of our students are on free or reduced lunch.  Most of my students are from first generation Hispanic families. For the most part, my students come to my second grade classroom one or even two years below grade level.  In our elementary school, which serves grades Pre-kindergarten to sixth grade, we focus mainly on reading and math, and so consequently our students lack science skills. However they are tested on science in the fifth grade.  I do not feel confident that most of the students have the knowledge that they should have about science.  This curriculum unit will look at math word problems from a gardener’s point of view.

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