Third-grade math instruction is focused on the following areas: developing an understanding of multiplication and division and strategies for multiplication and division within 100; developing an understanding of fractions, especially unit fractions (fractions with numerator 1); developing an understanding of the structure of rectangular arrays and of area; describing and analyzing two-dimensional shapes.

The best way to ensure your students fully grasp the math concepts they'll need to successfully progress in their education is to practice as much as possible. The worksheets, puzzles, games, and other resources available here are the perfect solution for parents and teachers who want to provide their third graders with the tools they need to understand and excel in third-grade math.

In this activity, students learn how engineers design faucets. Students will learn about water pressure by building a simple system to model faucets and test the relationship between pressure, area and force. This is a great outdoor activity on a warm day.

An interactive applet and associated web page showing how to find the area and perimeter of a trapezoid from the coordinates of its vertices. The trapezoid can be either parallel to the axes or rotated. The grid and coordinates can be turned on and off. The area and perimeter calculation can be turned off to permit class exercises and then turned back on the verify the answers. The applet can be printed as it appears on the screen to make handouts. The web page has a full description of the method for determining area and perimeter, a worked example and has links to other pages relating to coordinate geometry. Applet can be enlarged to full screen size for use with a classroom projector. This resource is a component of the Math Open Reference Interactive Geometry textbook project at http://www.mathopenref.com.

An interactive applet and associated web page that demonstrate that in similar triangles, the ratio of their areas is the square of the ratio of the sides. As you drag one triangle to resize it, it remains similar to another and the ratios of sides and areas is calculated as you drag. One can be seen to be the square of the other at all times. A slight 'snap-to' effect allows easy selection of integer ratios (2:4 etc). Applet can be enlarged to full screen size for use with a classroom projector. This resource is a component of the Math Open Reference interactive geometry reference book project at http://www.mathopenref.com.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about given the perimeter, find the side length and area - squares.

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Challenged with a hypothetical engineering work situation in which they need to figure out the volume and surface area of a nuclear power plant’s cooling tower (a hyperbolic shape), students learn to calculate the volume of complex solids that can be classified as solids of revolution or solids with known cross sections. These objects of complex shape defy standard procedures to compute volumes. Even calculus techniques depend on the ability to perform multiple measurements of the objects or find functional descriptions of their edges. During both guided and independent practice, students use (free GeoGebra) geometry software, a photograph of the object, a known dimension of it, a spreadsheet application and integral calculus techniques to calculate the volume of complex shape solids within a margin of error of less than 5%—an approach that can be used to compute the volumes of big or small objects. This activity is suitable for the end of the second semester of AP Calculus classes, serving as a major grade for the last six-week period, with students’ project results presentation grades used as the second semester final test.

Students apply their knowledge of scale and geometry to design wearables that would help people in their daily lives, perhaps for medical reasons or convenience. Like engineers, student teams follow the steps of the design process, to research the wearable technology field (watching online videos and conducting online research), brainstorm a need that supports some aspect of human life, imagine their own unique designs, and then sketch prototypes (using Paint®). They compare the drawn prototype size to its intended real-life, manufactured size, determining estimated length and width dimensions, determining the scale factor, and the resulting difference in areas. After considering real-world safety concerns relevant to wearables (news article) and getting preliminary user feedback (peer critique), they adjust their drawn designs for improvement. To conclude, they recap their work in short class presentations.

Students will have to solve the real world problem of locker smell leakage by building an air filter that will cover the vents on the top of a locker. This project goes well with a curriculum on the particle nature of gases and phase changes.