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http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/Stonehenge.htm

Psst! Reader!

If you are out there, I am begging you for help

with a bit of a problem I might have created…

As well-behaved as I am for just a puppy-dog of one-years-old,

I kind of caused a “doggy no-no” while I was chasing my tail just now.

You can probably see the scattered photos on the floor, and you

can probably make an educated guess as to how they got there…

Yup, it was me. I got so dizzy while chasing my tail that I bumped into the

coffee table, knocking this little stack of photos off of it and onto the floor.

This is where you come in.

You see, you all have hands to help me pick up and put back the photos! It‟s

important that they get put back because they are photos that Mom and Dad took

when they went on their summer trip all around the world.

So what do you say? Will you help me?

Please?

Pretty please?

…Don‟t make me use the puppy dog eyes!

So you will help? Great! Let‟s get started.

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/Stonehenge.htm

So here we have this place called Stonehenge and it is in Wiltshire County of the

United Kingdom. I don‟t know a whole lot about it because, well, I didn‟t get to

go on the trip. But, I did hear Mom and Dad talking about how many people don‟t

know a whole lot about Stonehenge‟s history either because it is very mysterious

regarding who or what it was even created for. Apparently, some scientists and

researchers think that Stonehenge was used as a place where religious practices

and ceremonies could occur. You can think of it as a special sort of place for the

people who made it.

Oh! I do remember who the people that constructed this place are – but it is

only a theory. Mom and Dad said these people are known as the “Druids,” who

were high Celtic priests.

I guess it is also said that Stonehenge was created from tools that were made

out of things like deer antlers and cattle shoulder blades. They were used to dig

and shovel out the ditch that is found at the site of Stonehenge.

(I usually just use my paws to dig, but Mom

and Dad don‟t like it when I did in the yard.)

So if that ditch and the bank of land is called a “henge,” then the stones all

around it must be what gives this place the name “Stonehenge.” Dad was saying

that he heard the stones used in the circle arrangement of this famous site weigh

about 4 tons each, and there are about 80 stones overall. I wonder how many

total tons that would come to?

Hmm… help me think.

If there are 80 stones that each weigh 4 tons, should I divide,

multiply, or subtract these numbers to find the total amount of

tons?

Multiplying the numbers would be the correct option. After all, we are

trying to find the answer of a set of 4 tons grouped together 80 times, because that

is the number of stones we are working with.

Okay, so 4 x 80 is our multiplication problem.

If 4 x 80 gives us a product of 320 tons.

But what is a ton?

Mom likes math, so I heard her say one time that 1 ton is equal

to 2000 pounds (lbs).

…Hmm, I wonder how many times my

28 lb bag of dog food can fit into 1 ton.

Maybe what I could do is divide the number of pounds there are in 1 ton by

how much my one bag of dog food weighs. Let‟s try it…

Our equation would look like this:

2000 lbs 28 lbs = ?

Because 28 goes into 2000 about 71.4 times, we‟ll say that

71.4 is the number of times my bag of dog food would fit into

1 ton.

Hey guys…did you know that the correct way to

say the number “71 point 4,” is “71 and 4 tenths,”

because the 4 is in the 1/10 (“one tenth”) number

place.

All this talk about bags of dog food is making me hungry! My dinnertime

isn‟t until Mom and Dad get home though, so let‟s move on to the next photo.

I know this place! It‟s Egypt, which is found on the continent of Africa.

Specifically though, this place is Cairo – Egypt‟s capital! That big, triangular thing

is called a pyramid. The ancient Egyptians had quite a few of them constructed in

their country because they were used as sacred burial sites (not like the burial sites

I created in our backyard last week for my new chew toys). Anyway, the burial

sites were for the Egyptian Pharaohs and acted as a protective shelter for them.

This particular pyramid is called the Giza Pyramid , or, The Great Pyramid

of Giza. I heard from Dad that the length of the base and the height of the Giza

Pyramid have decreased over the years. Now, the length of the base is 745 feet

long when it was originally 754 feet long. The height of the pyramid used to be

481 feet tall and now it is 449 feet tall.

I wonder what the area of one of the triangular sides of the Giza Pyramid

would be if we already know the length of the base and the height? Let‟s use the

current dimensions because those are the ones that Mom and Dad witnessed when

they visited the Giza Pyramid this summer (base = 745 ft, height = 449 ft).

If the equation for finding the area of a triangle is: A = ½ (base)*(height), then

our equation for this triangle would be: A = ½ (745 ft)*(449 ft)

Let‟s solve!

A = ½ (334,505 feet squared)

A = 167,252.5 feet squared …wow that‟s big!

It‟s neat to know that the dimensions of this pyramid have changed over

time. Like me! I mean, my opinion of the bath has changed over time. I used to

dread having to take a bath, but now I don‟t mind the water so much.

Speaking of water, look at the next photo from the trip.

In this photo, we are looking at the Great Blue Hole. It is just off the coast

of Belize, which is a country in Central America. It looks pretty cool, huh? This

spot is really popular among the tourists to this area because it is located within the

Lighthouse Reef System and people love to go scuba diving there. That is how

Mom and Dad found out about it.

Apparently there was this guy named Jacque Cousteau who sailed out on a

boat called The Calypso, and he was the one who charted this place for the very

first time. The length all the way across The Great Blue Hole measures 1000 feet

long, and has a depth of 480 feet.

Wow, that is a lot of feet, but it looks so nice I wouldn‟t

mind taking a bath there!

Mom said that The Great Blue Hole doesn‟t just look like it could be a

perfect circle, it is almost a perfect circle. Just for fun, how about we pretend that

The Great Blue Hole is, in fact, perfectly circular, and that it is the base of a

circular prism (otherwise known as a “cylinder”). Let‟s find out what the volume

would be.

Hmm…I suppose that means we will need to know the

equation for finding the Volume of a Cylinder then, huh?

Well, the volume of a cylinder, or a circular prism, is the area of the given circle

multiplied by the height of the prism. Let‟s see…we should probably find the area

of the circle first – that being The Great Blue Hole.

If I remember correctly, the equation used for finding the area of a circle = πr^2.

The “π” is known as “pi,” not actual pie (like the food I‟m not supposed to eat) but

a special number that is equal to about 3.141592654……. ……..

(…well, you get the idea)

The “r” is representative of the radius of the circle, and the radius is

equal to half of the circle‟s diameter.

Okay, now let‟s substitute in the amount for the radius.

But wait!

What is our radius?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=34424868&id=16505287

Well, if it is half the length of the diameter, which in our case is the length

9in feet) across The Great Blue Hole, then we are looking for half of 1000.

Therefore, our radius would be 500 ft because 500 is half of 1000.

So our equation now looks like this: A = π (500^2)

Let’s solve! And because π (pi) is such a tricky number,

let‟s use our calculators for this problem.

(Remember, 500^2 is 500 x 500, not 500 x 2)

A = π (250,000)

A = about 785,398 feet squared

when rounded to the nearest whole number

Alright, so now we have the approximate area that we will be able to substitute

into the equation for the volume of a cylinder. Due to the fact that The Great Blue

Hole is not actually a cylinder, let‟s use the depth (480 ft) as the value we put into

the equation for the height.

Now, the equation we will be working with is this:

V = (area of circle)*h

V = (785,398 feet squared)*(480 feet)

By the way, when we solve this problem we should use a

calculator again because the numbers are so big. Or if you

want, you could solve it long hand and then just check it on the

calculator.

The answer we get is:

V = 376,991,040 feet cubed.

Maybe you have noticed that our answer is not in feet squared (ft^2) anymore.

Instead, we have an answer in feet cubed (ft^3). This is because with volume, a

unit is multiplied three times. This time, overall, the unit of „feet‟ was multiplied

three times.

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/Stonehenge.htm

Oh wow!

I guess we have gotten through each of the pictures already. I know Mom

and Dad must‟ve taken more on the trip, but they probably haven‟t printed them

off yet.

Thank you so much for helping me!

(…I promise I‟ll let you know when I get my paws on the rest

of those photos – I bet there are some more fun things to learn

about and calculate with them!)

Bye for now!

Happy learning!

z Z Z Z z z

Introductory Page

According to the Core Curriculum for Social Studies, providing a book about locations such as the United

Kingdom, Egypt, and Belize would be best fit for Grade 6 Social Studies. This is because the content for

Grade 6 is on regions in the Eastern Hemisphere (the UK and Egypt), along with a backtrack to the

previous Grade 5 year when Latin America (Belize) is to be introduced and studied - like as noted on

page.32, “It is highly recommended that lessons also compare and contrast this specific information with

similar data from the United States, Canada, and Latin America.”

Social Studies Concepts/Themes Standards

History/Culture, Diversity, Change (2) World History

Geography/Places and Regions, The Uses of Geography,

Environment, Environment and Society (3) Geography

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

According to the Ney York State Core Curriculum for Mathematics, providing a book about various

locations around the world would be most suitable for Grade 6 Mathematics. The content chosen to be in

the book for the Social Studies aspect is relates to the types of mathematical equations and problem

solving that apply for a Grade 6 math student. The reader will be interpreting the data they are given, and

decide what to do with said information in order to manipulate it and create an equation that would solve

the problem – some being in multiple-step form.

Math Performance Indicators

[6.PS.7] Represent problem situations verbally, numerically, algebraically, and/or graphically

[6.PS.7] Select an appropriate representation of a problem

[6.RP.8] Justify an argument through examples/counterexamples and special cases

[6.RP.9] Devise ways to verify results

Works Cited

Cooper, Gaz. “Belize‟s Great Blue Hole.” Scuba Diving.19 July 2010. Web. 28 September 2010.

<http://www.dailyscubadiving.com/belize%e2%80%99s-great-blue-hole-is-it-really-worth-diving/>

“Mystic Places – The Great Pyramid.” World-Mysteries.2002-2009. 28 September 2010. Web.

<http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_2.htm>

“The Beautiful Places of Egypt.” RedTravel-Travel Information Online. 12 April 2010. 29 September

2010. Web. <http://www.redbookonline.net/?s=giza+pyramid>

“Who Built Stonehenge?” Stonehenge. 2 November 2010. Web. 28 September 2010. Web.

<http://www.christiaan.com/stonehenge/index.php?pg=stonehenge-who-built-stonehenge>

“Sound Waves - The Great Blue Hole of Belize.” USGS – Science for a Changing World. 30 December

2009. 30 September 2010.