Lesson: Daring to Discover

Play the video “Breaking Barriers: NASA’s Science Superstar.” Then, before or after reading the article, spark a discussion based on the following questions:

• What types of careers involve STEM?
• How long do you think it takes to design an invention? Explain.

• What are some strategies you can use to solve word problems? (Answers will vary. Possible answers: reread the problem, mark up important information, draw a picture or model, etc.)
• What are some important steps in solving a word problem? Why? (Answers will vary. Possible answers: identifying the unknown information, identifying strategies to solve for the unknowns, solving for the unknowns, etc.)
• Can a word problem have more than one step to solve? (Yes.) These types of word problems are called multistep.
• Play the math video “Solving Problems With an Unknown.”

• Why do you think reading the problem twice is recommended? (Answers will vary.)
• How do you determine which information is unknown? (You identify the information that is needed to help you solve the question being asked.)
• What was the first unknown that was solved for? (The year the Voting Rights Act was passed, 1965.)
• Could this problem have been solved another way? (Yes; answers will vary. Possible answer: You could have taken the current year, 2021, subtracted 1920, and then subtracted 45.)

Have students complete problems 1 through 3 on page 5 of the article.

Skills Sheets: Level Down: Word Problem and Expression Match (3.NBT.A.2; 3.OA.A.3) | On Level: DynaDash: Steps for Solving Multistep Word Problems (3.OA.D.8) | Level Up: Solving Word Problems With Unknowns (4.OA.A.2, 4.OA.A.3)

SEL (Social-emotional learning activity/prompt): In this article, students learned about women who overcame many obstacles. Have an open-ended class discussion about the question “What does equality mean to you?” Allow students to write down or share their responses, encouraging respectful discourse.

Dynamath@Home: Have students choose a woman who they consider important and write their own multistep word problem about her. They can choose a family member or research a person in books or online. Allow students to share their word problems with the class to solve.