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Re: Polar Graphing
Posted:
Feb 28, 1995 9:29 AM
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Eileen Abrahamson writes:
>I am looking for some resources for Polar Graphing that would be
>appropriate for use with 4th grade students. I would appreciate any
>suggestions.
SCIS (Science Curriculum Improvement Study) used to have a grade 4 unit
(Relative Position and Motion) that included playground mapping with polar
coordinates. It worked well, as I recall. I'm pretty sure the unit was
retained in SCIIS, but I don't know about the current incarnation of this
wonderful project.
You might also think about latitude and longitude--there are some strong
parallels with polar coordinates--since these are part of the traditional
fourth grade emphasis on geography.
P.S. I tried to get my colleagues here to include polar coordinates in
grade 4, but was outvoted. I think it's a great topic and not all that
hard. Something like comparing rectangular coordinate maps made with polar
coordinate maps with the actual mapped region seems like a natural. For
example, gather some data, draw a map (or maps), measure a distance on the
map(s), use the map scale(s) to predict the real-world distance, measure
the real distance, discuss, (compute relative error(s)).
************************************************************************
Andy Isaacs
TIMS Project UIC-IMSE (M/C 250)
University of Illinois at Chicago 840 W. Taylor, Rm 2075 SEL
aisaacs@uic.edu Chicago, IL 60607-7019
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