Lesson Plan

Ancient Story Problems

Main Subject Area: Mathematics

Additional Subjects: Social Studies

Duration of Lesson:  90 minutes

Keywords:

• Coin History
• Coins
• Greece
• Greek Coins
• Roman Coins
• Rome
• Story Problems
• Writing

Brief Description:

Students will research ancient civilizations, and develop story problems using symbols and coins from those times. Students will then retell these story problems using modern terms and coins.

National Standard(s):

• Number and Operations
• Problem Solving
• Communication

Additional Subject Area Standard(s):

• People, Places, and Environment
• Time, Continuity, and Change

Objectives:

Students will create their own story problems based on people, symbols and coins from ancient Greek and Roman times. Students will retell these story problems using modern terms and coins.

Students will learn about the history of ancient Rome and Greece.

Materials (online):

Access to a computer classroom that has connection to the Internet.

Ancient Roman and Greek coins FAQs - http://www.math.montana.edu/~umsfwest/numis/index.html

Roman History, Coins and Technology - http://myron.sjsu.edu/index.htm

An overview of ancient coins - http://www.ancientcoinmarket.com/ds/overview/begin4.html

Materials (offline):

Pencils

Paper

Possible Books to use:

Grant, Michael. Roman History From Coins. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1995.

Harper, David C., editor. North American Coins and Prices 9th edition. New York: Krause Publications, 2001.

Klawans, Zander. Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman Coins. Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing, Co., 1995.

Lindheim, Leon. Facts and Fictions about Coins – an uncommon guidebook to the wonderful world of numismatics Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing Co., 1967.

Official 2001 Blackbook Price Guide to United States Coins. Random House, Inc., 2000.

Schwarz, Ted. Coins as Living History. New York: Arco Publishing Inc., 1976.

Sutherland, Carol H.V. Art In Coinage. New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1956.

Coins Used in Lesson:

Ancient Greek and Roman coins

All current circulating U.S. coins

Grade Level(s):   3-5     6-8  

Procedures (online):

Students first need to do some research on the coins and times of ancient Rome and Greece.

Procedures (offline):

1. Students can work in groups to use the internet sites or books in the Materials/Resources list to come up with a list of coins and items they can use in their story problems.

2. Each group should write their ideas on butcher paper and post them around the room to share with other groups.

3. Each student will need to write a story problem using ancient Greek or Roman coins and settings. You can give the students guidelines (grading rubric) for which mathematical operations should be used in their problems and how many steps their problems should include.

4. For each ancient story problem they write, the student will write a modern story problem. See example below:

A Roman laborer made one Denarius per day. A Denarius could purchase - 25 pounds of bread or 10 pounds of olive oil. How many days would the laborer need to work to buy 30 pounds of oil? If he eats 2 pounds of bread per day, how many days does he have to work to buy bread for 50 days?

A modern day worker makes $50 a day. If a loaf of bread costs $0.99 then how many loaves can he buy after working one day? How much change would he have left over?

Assessment / Evaluation:

The students will be evaluated on their story problems. A rubric can be set up and presented to the students before they begin. The rubric can include number of steps, types of mathematical operations, and strategies for solving the problem.

Differentiated Learning Options:

Students could create harder (multi-step) problems for enrichment. Story problems can be sent to another class at the same level via email for other students to solve. Students with a learning disability can use manipulatives to help them plan out their story problem, or they can also draw out the problem instead of writing it.