How Many Party Balloons Does It Take To Lift A Person?

by Tzu-Li Tien

Introduction Concept Map Project Calendar Lesson Plans Letter to Parents Assessments Resources Modifications

Dear Parents/Guardians,         Your child will be embarking on a unique exploration into a 4-week project unit called “How Many Party Balloons Does It Take To Lift A Person?”. The coursework will include investigating concepts on ratio & proportion, linear function, scatter plot & best-fit line, volume, and density & buoyancy. The purpose of the project is letting your child to learn these knowledge and allow he/she to apply these knowledge in real-life phenomenon such as floating. As a result, your child will develop a deeper understanding of mathematics and their application. There will be some homework assignments throughout the unit to enhance you child’s understanding. Also, there will be an adequate number of workdays allowing each group to work on their projects in class. Please ask your son or daughter about what they learning. It will give them an opportunity to practice for their presentation. There are three parts to the unit: background knowledge, experiments, and the actual project. In addition, some classroom assessment activities will be post in class as a check for both your child and me. The grade of this entire project will be based on three things: assessment activities, experiment record, and project presentation. The grading rubric for the project presentation is available for your perusal should you have questions concerning how your child’s performance will be assessed. All the necessary materials for the project will be provided except for a spiral bounded journal, paper, and pencils. Besides these materials, it is possible for students to choose projects that require only materials that are normally found around the home plus a few special pieces of equipment provided by the school. If your child asks you to buy any expensive equipment for the project, please be aware that this is due to the choice of topic instead of a course requirement. If you have any concerns or questions, you can reach me by phone (512-731-2810) or email (UTeacher@mail.utexas.edu). Please sign the next page and return it to me so that we know that you have seen this letter and the rubric. Thank you for your time and interest. Sincerely, Tzu-Li Tien I have read and agreed to the above information on the Size of Things unit Child's name: ________________________ (please print) Parents/Guardians Name: ____________________________ (please print)          Parents/Guardians Signature:  _________________________      Date: ______________________