Accomplishments of African Americans—
Using Mathematics in Many Fields
For Students
Introduction / The Task / ProcedureWeb site Resources / Conclusion / Scoring Guide
For Teachers
Teacher Suggestions / NCTM Standards / ISTE Standards / CreditsMasterClips® 20,000, 1996
Introduction
The manager of the local TV station has asked you to be on TV as a part of the evening news. He wants you to tell the life story of a famous African American who used mathematics to do something wonderful for people. This special feature will last only five minutes. You will need to make your presentation interesting for those watching TV. So he wants you to demonstrate (show) how the mathematics was used.
The Task
The manager will give you seven African Americans from which to choose a person to talk about. The manager wants you to do the research to find out about the person’s life. Remember he also wants you to show how the famous person used mathematics in the real world to help people. So you will plan a demonstration to show on TV. You may have a partner to help you. Both of you will be on TV in the presentation. The presentation is to be no more than five minutes because many news stories need to be on the evening news.
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Procedure
1. Choose one of these seven famous African Americans.
Garrett A. Morgan
Madame C. J. Walker
Dr. Charles Drew
Mae C. Jemison
George Washington Carver
` Elijah J. McCoy
Benjamin Banneker
2. Go to the Web site Resource section of this WebQuest and click on the sites listed under the name of your person.
3. Read about his or her life. Then answer these questions on a piece of paper:
1. When was the person born?
2. Where were they born?
3. Was the person born a slave or a free person?
4. What kind of things happened to the person as he or she grew up?
5. What was the famous thing he or she did?
6. How is his or her work helping us today?
7. What did he or she have to know about mathematics to do their famous accomplishment?
8. What might you do to demonstrate on TV the mathematics the person used? Click here for a clue.
4. Show your teacher the answers to the questions. Your teacher may asked you some more questions to help you plan your presentation.
5. Write what you have learned as a script. A script tells what you will say and do on TV. Do this with your partner.
6. Collect any props (things you will need to demonstrate the mathematics). Think about how you might dress for your presentation.
7. Practice your presentation with your partner. Time it to make sure it is only five minutes long.
8. Your teacher will tell you when you will be videotaped for TV so you can have everything ready for that time.
9. Look at the scoring guide to see how your teacher will score your work.
1. Print the scoring guide from the computer.
2. See if you can score yourself like your teacher will do.
3. Show your scoring guide to your teacher.
10. Compare your score with your teacher’s score.
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Demonstration Clue
Here’s how you might demonstrate the mathematics that Madame C. J. Walker used:
On the web, it told that she started her work with $1.25 and ended up a millionaire ( worth more than $1,000,000.00)
You could make play money and show how Madame Walker would have counted her money from $1.25 to $1,000,000.00
How to count money is one of the things we study in math class.
Back to the Procedure
Conclusion
At the end of the TV presentation and demonstration, tell how the work of the famous person helps us today to live a better life.
Web site Resources
Garrett A. Morgan
Madame C. J. Walker
Dr. Charles Drew
Mae C. Jemison
George Washington Carver
Elijah J. McCoy
Benjamin Banneker
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Scoring Guide
Starting1 / Progressing
2 / Proficient
3 / Over the Top
4
Resources on the Web / Read 1 resource / Read 2 resource / Read 3 resource / Found more resources on your own
Questions Sheet / Answered 2 questions / Answered 4 questions / Answered first 7 questions / Answered all 8 questions
Showed Teacher Your Answer Sheet / Yes but did not make changes if suggested / Started using teacher’s suggestions but did not follow through to the end / Took teacher’s suggestions to help plan presentation / Added to what the teacher suggested for the presentation
Write Script to Plan Presentation / Started writing presentation but did not finish / Wrote presentation with partner / Wrote presentation and planned actions with partner / Added many interesting things to presentation and actions
Acted out TVPresentation
On Videotape / Just read the story from the script / Read story from script with expression / Told story from memory to make it more interesting to TV audience / Told story from memory as if it were your own life experience
Math
Demonstration for TV / Collected props but did not use them / Showed how math was used in actions with props but did not use words to explain to TV augience / Showed and explained math used by famous person so TV audience could understand it / Used a new inventive prop and super explanation of how math was used by the famous person.
TV audience would really understand it
Conclusion—how the work is important for us today / Forgot to end the presentation with how this is important to us / Said it was important but did not say how the work made our life’s better / Told how it is important for us today—to make our lives better / Told how it is important for us today—showed gratitude and respect in your voice
Working with your Partner / Did not listen to partner, or wanted everything your own way / You listened to your partner and took some of his or her ideas / You both had an equal part in the preparation and presentation / You both planned more detail and props to make the work interesting for others to see
Your score of your work ______
Your teacher’s score of your work ______
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Teacher Suggestions
If children do not have the ability to read the web sites...
Have children from a higher grade level work with your students by reading the material on the web. They should not do the written work for them. They are just there to read what is often an upper grade reading level on some web sites.
To simulate a real TV presentation...
Videotape each group doing their presentations. If you have more students, you maychoose to have
1. some childrenreport on the same person showing different mathematics used
OR
2. use the web sites listed for the famous African Americans to find other famous African Americans for additional presentations by other students
Some of the videos can actually be sent to the local TV station for possible use.
If children cannot think of a math demonstration...
Some students will find it difficult to understand how they can demonstrate the mathematics used by their chosen person. We did give a clue using Madame Walker to help them think about what they might do, but if they still have trouble, here are some things that other teachers have done...
Garrett Morgan—children enlist other children to act the role as cars coming to an intersection without a traffic light. Show people hurt by bumping into each other (stress this is merely acting...not the real thing). Then a studentholds up a traffic lightlike the one pictured one of the Morgan web sites. Now the same students go through the intersection safely while one child keeps track of the seconds (most traffic lights are 30 – 45 seconds in wait time) between stop light signals. Children can clock the time with a stop watch. The mathematics deals with time and spatial recognition of colors and shapes in geometry.
Dr. Charles Drew—children can demonstrate what happens when cooking oil and water are mixed together. It simulates the plasma (water as plasma, oil as the other blood parts) when Dr. Drew saw how the plasma could be separated from the blood and preserved to be used later when people needed blood transfusions. The mathematics is seen when the children use liquid measurement devices (in pints or liters) to measure how much water and oil are a container. See the measurement chapter 7 in the Hatfield text for further ideas on measurement of capacity.
Mae C. Jemison—children can made paper rockets to simulate the space shuttles going into space and launch them to see how far they can travel. Measure the inches or yards they fly in the classroom. The mathematics can be seen with the measurement tools to measure distance of flight.
George Washington Carver—have peanut products available to show, such as peanut butter, peanut oil, etc. that are directly attributedto Dr. Carver. Demonstrate how peanut oil is used in cooking, etc. The mathematics is seen in the measurement devices to determine how much should be used.
Elijah J. McCoy—have children bring in bicycles, or any toys with gears. With a medicine dropper and some oil demonstrate how a little bit of oil dropped on the gears as they rotate can make them run smoothly. The mathematics deals with how much oil to how big the piece of machinery is. It is a ratio—one drop per half a rotation. See more about ratios in chapter 11 of the Hatfield text.
Benjamin Banneker—have children make a map that shows how to get from school to a favorite place (i.e. the cream store, toy store, video store, etc.) Let them discover that it is best to map the quickest route if one wants to get places quickly like people need to do in Washington, D.C. The mathematics deals with how to count the distance on the map.
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NCTM Standards
For the early grades
• recognize and generate equivalent forms of commonly used fractions, decimals, and percents.
• recognize, name, build, draw, compare, and sort two- and three- dimensional shapes.
• describe, name, and interpret relative positions in space and apply ideas about relative position.
• recognize the attributes of length, volume, weight, area, and time.
• compare and order objects according to these attributes.
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For theupper grades...
• develop, analyze, and explain methods for solving problems involving proportions, such as scaling and finding equivalent ratios.
• understand relationships among the angles, side lengths, perimeters, areas, and volumes of similar objects.
•make and use coordinate systems to specify locations and to describe paths.
•find the distance between points along horizontal and vertical lines of a coordinate system.
• understand both metric and customary systems of measurement.
• understand relationships among units and convert from one unit to another within the same system.
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ISTE Standards
• use the Internet web sites to gain information.
• use worksheets, games, and puzzles generated by technology in the study of a subject area.
• study the use of technology through the ages—from early uses in the 1600s, 1700s, through the 21stCentury
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Credits
"The images used herein were obtained from IMSI's MasterClips© Collection, MasterClips® 20,000, 1996, 75 Rowland Way, Novato, CA 94945, USA."
"IMSI, the IMSI logo, and MasterClips® are registered trademarks, and are trademarks of IMSI, in the USA and/or other countries ofInternational Microcomputer Software Incorporated.”
The clip art in this electronic format, including on-line use and multimedia applications, is used under all of the following conditions: the images are incorporated for viewing purposes only; the images do not comprise a large portion of the content of this application; no permission is given to download and save the images for any reason; and the application is not a product which is similar to or competes with any of the features of any IMSI product.
The author of this WebQuest paid for the right to use the clip art in the creation of teacher-made materials.
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