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Soak It Up

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Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8

The following examples of student work illustrate achievement at the mathematics standard for years 6, 7 and 8.
 
 
 

The task in this illustration was part of a science investigation into the absorbency of sponges. The class was working on a unit called Fibres and Fabrics from Making Better Sense of the Material World. As part of the unit, the students identified material properties that contribute to absorbency and completed a lesson on fair testing. This task focuses on the mathematical problem solving that took place within the investigation. It relates to achievement objectives for Number and Measurement from the mathematics and statistics learning area in The New Zealand Curriculum.

The Task

Soak It Up

Your class is investigating which of four different types of sponge is the most absorbent. The four sample sponges vary in size.

  1. a. Find the volume of each sponge.
    b. Record how much water each sponge absorbs.
  2. Which sponge is the most absorbent?

Some features of students’ work used to make judgments in relation to the mathematics standard are described below. 

Soak It Up: Illustrating the year 6 standard
Soak It Up: Illustrating the year 7 standard
Soak It Up: Illustrating the year 8 standard

PDF of this task and Illustrations of the years 6, 7 and 8 standards (1.29MB)