Don Harrington Discovery Center

Activity: Farmer Joe and Farmer Bill's land is represented on the following diagram. Find as many shapes as you can. Find the perimeters of all shapes. Find the perimeter of Farmer Bill's land. Now, draw a duplicate drawing and attach it to the south of this diagram. Re-figure perimeters of shapes and overall perimeter (answers depending on shapes found).

Tuesday: (Bloom's: Application; TEKS 7.2A&B, 7.3B) Use the diagram from yesterday to find area. Use the following formulas:

Parallelogram - A=bh
Rectangle - A=lw
Triangle - A=1/2bh

Find the area of Farmer Joe's land (137.5 feet). Find the area of Farmer Bill's land (62.5 feet). Do the following word problems:

1. Farmer Joe is thinking about selling his land to Farmer Bill. He figures he will sell it for ten dollars for every foot of land. How much would it cost for Farmer Bill to buy? ($1,375)

2. If Farmer Bill decides to plant 26 seeds on every foot of his land, how many total seeds will he need? (1625 seeds)? If he buys Farmer Joe's land, how many seeds will he need in all? (5200 seeds)

3. Farmer Bill does decide to buy Farmer Joe's land, and he does decide to plant 26 seeds for every foot. However, 3/4 of those seeds are blown away by a huge dust storm. How many seeds are left in the ground? (1300 seeds)

Activities: Tell students to design their own plot of land using rectangles, triangles and trapezoids. Figure their own areas and perimeters. Have them trade their puzzle with another student and let them figure out the areas and perimeters.

Activities: Students will now find actual perimeters and areas. Have students use a measuring tape to measure different shapes in the room (i.e., books, chalkboards, bulletin boards, computer screens, etc.). Then take the project to a larger scale ... let them measure the perimeter of the entire classroom, the hall, the cafeteria, and even the outside of the entire school!