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Lesson plan Grade 4 Careers & CTE

A Day With Elmgate's Water Sampler: Measurement Math on the Route

A 50-minute grade 4 careers lesson where students act as a water sampling technician and solve measurement problems with milliliters, liters, and time.

Objectives

  1. Students will solve measurement word problems using milliliters, liters, and minutes.
  2. Students will interpret a leftover amount when they divide bottles into boxes.

Vocabulary

Key words: sample, milliliter, liter, convert, remainder

Teacher overview

A water sampling technician drives a route, fills bottles with water from creeks and taps, and carries them to the lab for testing. Every step uses measurement, which makes this job a good setting for grade 4 measurement math. In the town of Elmgate (used here as an example), students take on the sampler's route and solve problems with milliliters, liters, and time. A common mistake to watch for is mixing up the two directions of a conversion: there are 1,000 milliliters in 1 liter, so students should divide milliliters by 1,000 to get liters, not multiply.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Hold up an empty sample bottle and ask how a water sampler could keep track of how much water she collects in a day. Take two or three ideas and connect them to measuring in milliliters and liters.

Direct instruction (12 min): Model two problems on the board using numbers that are not on the handout. First, show that 5 bottles that each hold 200 milliliters make 5 x 200 = 1,000 milliliters, and that 1,000 milliliters equals 1 liter. Then model a leftover problem: 14 bottles packed into boxes of 4 make 3 full boxes with 2 bottles left over, because 14 divided by 4 is 3 remainder 2. Name the leftover the remainder.

Guided practice (13 min): Work through handout questions 1, 2, and 3 together as a class. After question 2, poll the class with a thumbs up or thumbs down: thumbs up if 2,000 milliliters equals 2 liters. If more than about a quarter of the class is unsure, model the 1,000 milliliters equals 1 liter rule again before continuing.

Independent practice (15 min): Students solve handout questions 4, 5, 6, and 7 on their own. Remind them to show each step so a partner could follow the work.

Closure (5 min): Partners compare their answers to question 7 and explain how they handled the leftover bottles. Scan a few papers; if several students dropped the remainder, reteach the leftover idea at the start of the next class.

A Day With Elmgate's Water Sampler: Measurement Math on the Route — Grade 4 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

You are a water sampling technician on Elmgate's route. Show your work for each question.

  1. You fill 8 sample bottles. Each bottle holds 250 milliliters. How many milliliters of water is that in all?
  2. Change your answer from question 1 into liters. (There are 1,000 milliliters in 1 liter.)
  3. The lab needs 3 samples from each of 7 creek sites. How many samples is that in all?
  4. Over 4 days you collected 96 samples in all, the same number each day. How many samples did you collect each day?
  5. Each test uses 15 milliliters of water. You have 300 milliliters. How many tests can you run?
  6. You spend 30 minutes at each of 5 sites. How many minutes is that in all? Then change your answer into hours and minutes.
  7. You have 30 sample bottles. You pack them into boxes that hold 4 bottles each. How many boxes can you fill all the way, and how many bottles are left over?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 2,000 milliliters. Multiply the number of bottles by the amount in each: 8 x 250 = 2,000 milliliters.
  2. Answer: 2 liters. There are 1,000 milliliters in 1 liter, so 2,000 divided by 1,000 = 2 liters.
  3. Answer: 21 samples. Three samples from each of 7 sites is 3 x 7 = 21 samples.
  4. Answer: 24 samples per day. Divide the total by the number of days: 96 divided by 4 = 24 samples each day.
  5. Answer: 20 tests. Divide the water you have by the water each test uses: 300 divided by 15 = 20 tests.
  6. Answer: 150 minutes, which is 2 hours and 30 minutes. First 5 x 30 = 150 minutes; then 150 minutes is 2 hours (120 minutes) with 30 minutes left, so 2 hours 30 minutes.
  7. Answer: 7 full boxes with 2 bottles left over. Divide 30 by 4 to get 7 remainder 2, so 7 boxes are full and 2 bottles are left over.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a conversion strip that shows "1 liter = 1,000 milliliters" and "1 hour = 60 minutes," and let them use counters to model the leftover in question 7. Start them with questions 1 through 3 only, and add the rest as they are ready.

Extension

Ask students to write one new sampler problem of their own that uses a division with a leftover, then trade with a partner and solve each other's problem. They must include an answer key for their problem.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "sample," "milliliter," "liter," and "remainder" with a picture and a short definition. Provide a labeled example that shows 1,000 milliliters poured into a 1-liter jug so the conversion in question 2 is concrete.