curriculum guide: backpack math - … math.pdfcurriculum guide: backpack math backpack math health...

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CURRICULUM GUIDE: BACKPACK MATH

Backpack MathHealth Web resources

Finding Percentage

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KidsPost Wants to KnowMe and My Backpack6

Crossword Puzzle

I Read It in the Post

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Word Study:A look at carry10

IN THIS ISSUE

ABCDE][

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An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program

Volume 1, I s sue 9 December 4, 2001KLMNO

© 2001 The Washington Post Company 01-137

Lesson: Use students’ backpacks to learn aboutpercentage and to talk about health

Level: Middle to Advanced

Subjects: Mathematics

Related Activity: Health, English, Language Arts

ProcedureAt the start of the day, invite students to stand on ascale wearing or holding their backpacks. Record eachstudent’s weight with the backpack, and then againwithout it. Some students will be sensitive about theirweight. Write each student's weight on a piece ofpaper, and give it to the student to use with the“Finding Percentage” worksheet.

ReadRead the KidsPost article and sidebars.

DiscussThe following questions are to be answered anddiscussed.

1. Many students use backpacks. What percent oftheir body weight is suggested that students in fourthgrade and younger not exceed in their backpacks?

2. Do any students not use a backpack? Why? Whatdo they use to carry their books and belongings?

Make a list of student responses on the board anddiscuss.

3. What problems may result from carrying too heavya load on your back?

4. Why is carrying too heavy a backpack daily ahealth concern?

Backpack Math

KidsPost Article: The World on your shoulders: Experts say kids pack too much into backpacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/education/kidspost/nie/A5126-2001Aug27.html

Backpack Fitness: Rx for Heavy Class LoadsA Few Smart Moves Could Make Students’ Academic Loads Easier toBear, Orthopedic Surgeons’ Organization SaysThe author reports “many doctors in the AAOS survey identified 20percent of the child’s body weight as the point at which backpacksbecome a clinical problem.” This very informative Post article includesback-strengthening exercise suggestions.

www.amerchiro.org/about_chiro/backpacks.html

Consumer TipsThe American Chiropractic Association press release and tips forstudents and hikers.

http://www.spine-health.com/topics/cd/pack/bp01.html

Backpacks and back pain in childrenAn evaluation of current studies of impact of heavy backpacks onchildren, suggestions for watching the weight carried and ways to be aproactive parent.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_report.cfm?Thread_ID=105&topcategory =Pediatrics

Kids and BackpacksPrevent Injuries America! is a program of the American Academy ofOrthopaedic Surgeons. “More than 13,260 injuries related to back-packs were treated at hospital emergency rooms, doctor’s offices andclinics in 2000, according to estimates and projections of the U.S.Consumer Product Safety Commission.” In response AAOS providesguidelines for preventing injuries.

http://www.vnh.org/NHB/HW9705Posture.html

Navy Health BookA quick reference that provides specific information about the back,posture and discomfort.

http://rothmaninstitute.com/spine/anatomy.htm

Excellent drawing of the spine, labeled.

Backpack HealthOn the Web

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PracticeList the four types of backpacks on the board. Add“other type of bag” and “none” to the list. Of thetypes of backpacks, which are used by students inyour class? Record the number after each of the sixchoices. Compute the percentage of students who useeach type of backpack or none.

Do the MathUsing the “Finding Percentage” worksheet, havestudents record their weight, and the weight of theirbackpack. (Younger students may need help withdetermining the weight of their backpacks.)

Have students categorize the items in their backpacks,then estimate the weight of each item.

Using a calculator, show students how to calculate thepercentage of their backpack weight to their bodyweight.

Direct students to work in small groups to brainstormideas for reducing the weight of their backpacks andimproving the health of their spines.

Complete the Crossword PuzzleAfter you have completed the crossword puzzle, writea paragraph about backpacks in which you use five ormore words found in the crossword puzzle.

Conduct a SurveyKidsPost wants to know what your students’ back-packs weigh. Select a week between now and the endof January 2002 to record backpack weight daily. See“Me and My Backpack” reproducible for use duringthe week.

Write: Write a letter to your principal. In this lettertell the principal about your week-long survey, theresults from your class and conclusions you havereached. Include whether or not you think studentsare making healthy decisions. If you are concernedabout the weight of backpacks, do you have a sugges-tion to improve the situation?

Be a time traveler

Tell students: You cantravel back in time withyour backpack. How farback will you go, and whatcivilization will you visit?What items will you needto pack into your back-pack? What might otherchildren your age becarrying in their ownbackpacks if they hadthem? Describe how theirbackpacks might look.

You might want to specifya place and time for thestudent to travel,depending on the unit ofstudy being covered at thistime.

Fit the Backpack to theBack: A Matching Game

Students of Sharon Roweat Lane Elementary inFairfax County created agame using five differentcharacters and fivedifferent backpacks. Theyassigned a weight to eachperson and to each back-pack. Their partners wereto match the backpacks tothe students for whomthey would be an appro-priate fit, using the 10-15%of body weight rule.Students used calculatorsfor this activity, as this is anew skill in fifth grade.

What Goes Where?

Ask students to createthree different personal-ized backpacks and givethe total weight of each.At the top of their sheets,they draw items that mightgo into each backpackwith the individual weightof each item listed. Givingclues to match the person-alities of each backpackowner, the children designa worksheet for their class-mates to match the itemsto the correct backpack.This activity is best forstudents who enjoy thechallenge of creating theirown worksheets. Thiscould also be done in pairsor small groups.

More Activities

If time allows, here are additional activities to do withyour students after they have completed the “FindingPercentage” worksheet.

4© 2001 The Washington Post Company 01-137



Enrichment

1. Get Back Here

Study the structure of the spine and back muscles.How are they influenced by weight being carried inthe arms? On the back? What suggestions are therefor strengthening the back?

2. Use Your Back. Use Your Head.

A mummy found frozen in the Alps revealed that over5,000 years ago individuals carried their belongings.Otzi wore a leather pack, probably around his waist,in which three small tools made of flint were found. Awooden frame from a backpack survived and a quiverwith arrows were discovered near his body. (See“Curriculum Guide: The Science in Discovery”)

In 400 BC, Greek army porters carried food, toolsand equipment on their backs. The items were oftenlashed together with leather strips.

In the 1200s when monsoons hit the Andaman Sea orpirates plagued the Straits of Malacca, merchantswould portage their goods over the mountains andthrough the jungles of Thailand. This way was filledwith unknown dangers, but it was shorter and lesstreacherous than facing known dangers.

Name other examples of people who carried items ontheir backs. For example, do soldiers use backpacks?

Sometimes people use their heads instead of theirbacks. Name a country where someone could be seencarrying items on his or her head. What items mightbe carried?

What do you think about the practice of carryingitems on one’s head? What do you think someone 100years from now will think when they see pictures ofstudents with backpacks squeezed into hallways linedwith lockers?

B O N E S S P I N E

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A T L A S T D A Y

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3. I Read It in the Post

Give older students the reproducible, “I Read It inthe Post.” Have them read the excerpts that includebackpacks and answer the questions. Although theexcerpts are short, students are given practice inclose reading.

AnswersBackpack Crossword Puzzle appears on page 7 ofthis curriculum guide.


Finding Percentage

Get the facts

Use a scale to get the following information.

1. _________ pounds My weight

2. _________ pounds My weight holding my backpack

3. _________ pounds My full backpack weighs

4. List the contents of your backpack.

Books School Supplies Other

Weight: Weight: Weight:

Estimate how much each item weighs. (Make sure that when it is totaled, it is close to the weightyou wrote in Answer 3.)

Your backpack should not be heavier than 10 - 15% of your body weight.

To compute the percentage, divide the weight of your backpack by the your body weight. Youranswer will appear as a decimal. Multiply that number by 100 to get the percentage of your backpack’s weight to your body’s weight.

TRY IT! ____________________________

NAME ____________________________________________________________


Me and My Backpack

KidsPost wants to know how much your backpack weighs. We’ll compile the results and print them ina future issue. You can do this as a class project or on your own. Simply keep a log for a week of whatyour backpack weighs in the morning. It doesn’t matter which week it is, but we need the data for awhole week (unless you’re sick one day, in which case you may skip that day).

Backpack Weight Record

From ___________________ to ______________________, I weighed my backpack.

Here are the results.

_____ pounds, _____ ounces Monday’s backpack weight

_____ pounds, _____ ounces Tuesday’s backpack weight

_____ pounds, _____ ounces Wednesday’s backpack weight

_____ pounds, _____ ounces Thursday’s backpack weight

_____ pounds, _____ ounces Friday’s backpack weight

_____ pounds, _____ ounces My weight

Backpack Contents

These three items are always in my backpack:

1.

2.

3.

The heaviest item in my backpack is

I carry my backpack

_____ Only going to school and coming home

_____ Most of the school day

_____ Other:

This is usually true:

_____ I carry only the items I need for a certain class. Other books and stuff stay in my locker.

_____ I carry the items I need for the morning with me, then switch to items

_____ I need in the afternoon.

_____ I carry everything in my backpack all day.

NAME ____________________________________________________________


Backpack Crossword Puzzle

Complete the crossword puzzle using the clues.ACROSS

1. Porous, calcified connective tissues5. The supporting axis of the body9. Large, tailless primate10. One rich, bisquitlike pastry (two words)11. Hold while moving13. Uncles and _____15. Nickname: “The Green Mountain State” (postal abbrev.)16. Hispanic/Latino News Service (abbrev.)17. Dessert18. Something required or wanted19. Registered Nurse (abbrev.)20. Neither he _____ I can attend.21. Preposition22. Money25. Bring it in your backpack or buy it at school28. Kentucky Fried Chicken (abbrev.)29. To fall in drops from the clouds30. Kenya (Internet zone code)31. Haul or carry; kind of bag33. Eli Whitney invented the cotton _____ in 1793.35. Measure of the heaviness of an object36. Avenue (abbrev.)37. Collection of maps38. Opposite of night

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DOWN

1. A knapsack2. Online Privacy Alliance (abbrev.)3. Sensitive tissue in the pulp of a tooth4. Express5. Used to measure weight or mass of an object6. 16 ounces7. Small hotels8. Catch a butterfly in a ____.12. Right (abbrev.)14. Transgression16. Third person singular objective pronoun18. Opposite of yes19. Stone20. Nickname: “The Granite State” (abbrev.)21. Nickname: “The Volunteer State” (postal abbrev.)23. American Federation of Teachers (abbrev.)24. Look of disapproval25. Opposite of heavy26. Group acting as a whole; a _____ of study27. Weighs a lot29. Regional Economic Information System (abbrev.)32. Boston _____ Party34. Nickname: “Bay State” (postal abbrev.)36. American Airlines (abbrev.)




A. By Maria Glod and Jennifer Lenhart

. . . Loudoun Sheriff ’s Office officials said students approached administrators Tuesday morn-ing and told them that they had seen their classmate with the gun on Monday. The administra-tors questioned the boy and found a gun in his backpack, school officials said. . . .

B. By Paul SchwartzmanThe lawyer stashes directions to a friend’s country cabin in her purse and keeps a backpack andcat carrier by the front door of her Dupont Circle apartment. . . .

The financial consultant stows a bag in her car, packed with a pair of jeans, a sweat shirt,aspirin, Tums, water, three lighters, paper matches and her favorite video (“Clueless”). Her evac-uation plan: driving to her family’s river house two hours south in Virginia. . . .

C. By K.C. Summers. . . People entering department stores and museums must submit to handbag and luggageinspections.

National museums are patrolled inside and out, and all visitors must pass through metal detec-tors and have their handbags and backpacks inspected.

This last directive sounds like a formula for long lines, but on a Friday afternoon at the Louvre,it took only about five minutes for a handful of visitors to pass through a metal detector andrun their bags through an X-ray machine. Purses and backpacks were hand-inspected, but onlycursorily. Then we pretty much had the run of the place. . . .

D. By Tom Ashbrook. . . A new Canadian friend and I celebrated with a feast in the streets. A few hours later I wasnearly dead of meat poisoning, losing everything, losing blood.

My Canadian friend got me to the U.S. Embassy (now destroyed by Taliban mobs) and then tothe public hospital, a mud-walled warren of stark, dirt-floor rooms that looked unchanged sincethe British Raj. I had lost my senses and was soon thrashing and howling on a narrow bed.Suddenly there was a doctor, a syringe of morphine and the improbable vision of two smilingyoung women, Afghan candy-stripers, student nurses in crisp, pink-striped uniforms, hoveringover me in my delirium, helping to pump my stomach, wiping my brow and, very gently overthe next two days, nursing me, an American stranger with nothing but a backpack and humanvulnerability, back to health. . . .

I Read It in the Post

Daily newspapers let us know what is happening in our world. We learn about local and farawayplaces by reading the newspaper. We meet people and learn how they react to circumstances andrespond to one another. During one week in November, backpacks were included in WashingtonPost stories. Read the excerpts from five stories to learn what they reveal about events and atti-tudes in fall of 2001.

NAME ___________________________________________________________

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E. By Liza Mundy

The other day my kindergartener came home and announced, “Mom, I voted!” It was an unusu-ally precise piece of intelligence about her school day. Like most 6-year-olds, my daughter tendsto develop total amnesia the minute she takes her backpack off. Either that or she delivers vague,random insights at vague, random times; while she is getting ready for bed she might say some-thing like, “Mom, there’s a boy in my class who can burp the alphabet!”

Questions for a close reading

1. The news story (A) relates concerns about backpack content. In what way did studentsrespond to their environment? Why were backpacks searched? Do administrators have the rightto search students’ backpacks? If this happened in your school, what action would you take?What would you want the principal and police to do?

2. The travel story (C) also relates concern about backpack content. Why are searches takingplace in department stores and museums? How do you know Summers is in Paris? How thor-ough are the searches? What does “cursory” mean? What does the reporter convey when he saysafter inspections were finished, the museum visitors “had the run of the place”?

3. Which writers use the first person? Do you feel like the two writers are speaking to you? Thefeature writers hope so. Does Mundy make you laugh? Why?

4. How does the other writer make you feel? Ashbrook is reflecting on a trip he took many yearsago in Afghanistan. He includes many details. What do each of these details add to the article?

■ Now destroyed

■ Public hospital

■ Mud-walled warren

■ Since the British Raj

■ Improbable vision

■ Crisp, pink-striped uniforms

How do these help to give a sense of past and present conditions? When you find out that he has“nothing but a backpack and human vulnerability,” how do you feel about his condition? Whatidea is he presenting in this anecdote?

5. Can you think of a title for excerpt B? Why do you think these people and others in the storyhave packed bags? Has your family talked about an evacuation plan? If your parents wanted youto pack your backpack for a quick departure from your home, what would you put in it?

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Word Study: A look at carry

A person sees an object. The person leans over, picks it up and moves to another area.

Using “carry” as the verb, write a sentence that gives the same informationbut provides more detail. Who is the person? What is the object? Wheredoes the person go?

Share your sentences. Do you have a variety of situations? “Carry” is avery useful verb to relate a universal action. What does “carry” mean inthe sentences your classmates have written?

Were all of the actions in your sentences literal? You can see the objectsand the movement. “Carry” can also be used to express actions that arefigurative? Nothing is physically being held; holding or maintaining isimplied. In the following sentences, identify the literal use of “carry” andthe figurative use of “carry.”

■ A mother carried her baby to the bassinet.

■ The football player carried the ball for a 10-yard gain.

■ The gasoline tank carries 20 gallons when full.

■ I am carrying a heavy backpack.

■ My brother is carrying a heavy academic load in college.

■ The news was carried in every newspaper on September 12 in banner headlines.

■ Our VCR carries a two-year warranty.

If you lived in the Southern United States, you might have written thesentence: My father carried our family to the park. This is an idiom. Daddid not have the strength to pick up his whole family in his arms. In thisregion, “carry” means “to transport someone in a motor vehicle.” Thismeaning is very close to the original meaning of “carry.” The Latin nouncarrus means cart. It is the root of “carriage,” “car” and “carry.”

“Carry” is also a phrasal verb. When it has a preposition after it, itsmeaning changes. Some of the phrasal verbs have two to four meanings.This makes English more complicated to learn. Use the following insentences, then try to explain what they mean.

carry away carry on carry out carry through

Thank you for carrying out instructions.

Source: American Heritage Dictionary

Portable Baggage

Think about it. What do youcall the item in which somethingis placed and carried to anotherlocation? Well, it depends onwhat you are carrying and whois carrying the item.

What do you know about thefollowing items? Read thedictionary or an encyclopaediafor more information.

Who used each item?

When was it used?

What was placed in the item?

Backpack

Bag

Basket

Carrying Case

Cradleboard

Crate

Creel

Crocus sack

Dispatch box

Gunny sack

Haversack

Knapsack

Poke

Pouch

Purse

Rucksack

Sack

Quiver

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Academic Content Standards

The main lesson addresses these academic content standards of:

MarylandMathematicsKnowledge of NumberRelationships and Computation(6.0): Students will describe, repre-sent and apply numbers and theirrelationships and will estimate andcompute using mental strategies,paper/pencil and technology. 6.5.1:By the end of grade 5, students willknow and be able to read, write andrepresent simple fractions, decimalsand percents using symbols, wordsand models. 6.5.7: By the end ofgrade 5, students will apply strate-gies to solve problems with frac-tions and decimals; identify anddescribe the relationships amongfractions, decimals and percents;compute percentages of 10, 20, 25,50 and 100 percent of a number.

Language ArtsWriting (3.0): Students produceinformational, practical, persuasiveand narrative writing that demon-strates an awareness of audience,purpose and form using stages ofthe writing process as needed (i.e.,pre-writing, drafting, revising, edit-ing and publishing). By the end ofgrade 5, students know and are ableto create a clear organizing struc-ture that includes descriptionsplaced in a logical, chronological ornarrative sequence in ways that helpthe reader follow the line ofthought.

A complete list of State Content Standards ofMaryland can be found athttp://www.mdk12.org/mspp/.

VirginiaMathematicsMathematics, Computation andEstimation 5.3: The student willcreate and solve problems involvingaddition, subtraction, multiplica-tion and division of wholenumbers, using paper and pencil,estimation, mental computationand calculators. Number andNumber Sense 6.1 The studentswill identify representations of agiven percent and describe orallyand in writing the equivalence rela-tionship between fractions, deci-mals, and percents.

EnglishWriting 5.7: The student will writefor a variety of purposes todescribe, to inform, to entertainand to explain.

■ Organize information.

■ Use vocabulary effectively.

■ Vary sentence structure.

■ Revise writing for clarity

A complete list of Standards ofLearning of Virginia can be found onthe Web athttp://www.pen.k12.va.us/.

Washington, D.C.MathematicsNumber and Operation, ContentStandard 1: The student interpretsand understands multiple uses andforms of numbers and how theyrelate to each other; fluently usescomputational tools and strategies;estimates when appropriate; andsolves real-life and career-relatedproblems. Grade 6: Thestudent computes and solves prob-lems involving the addition andsubtraction, multiplication anddivision of whole numbers, frac-tions and decimals. The studentcomputes and solves problemsusing percent. The student inter-prets percent as part of 100.

EnglishLanguage as Literature, ContentStandard 3: Students use languageand symbol systems (e.g., timelines,maps, graphs and charts) to defineproblems and organize informa-tion. Grade 3: The student pro-duces a report that

■ develops a controlling idea ortheme that conveys a perspectiveon a subject;

■ includes appropriate facts anddetails;

■ excludes extraneous andinappropriate information;

■ uses a range of appropriatestrategies, such as providing factsand details, describing or analyzingthe subject, and a relevantanecdote.

The student produces a narrativeof procedure that establishes a con-text and develops a reader interest.

A complete list of Standards forTeaching and Learning of the Districtof Columbia Public Schools can befound athttp://www.k12.dc.us/.

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