Designing a Dinosaur Zoo

In Maths, we have been designing our own Dinosaur Zoo. We have been collaborating, sharing ideas and coming to a consensus. We have set group goals together and have been reflecting on these goals.

We co-constructed a Success Criteria

1. Ask good mathematical questions
2. Understanding the question/what we are working on
3. We need to know the measurements
4. We need to include a scale e.g 1cm = 10m
5. Give the dinosaurs a generous space
6. Say the the area and perimeter for each item/ enclosure

We brainstormed some things that we could include in the Dinosaur Park:

We had to research to find the lengths of different dinosaurs and think carefully about how much room they would need in each enclosure. 

Willa: I learnt about area and perimeter. It was really fun because I love drawing and problem solving. It had lots of art in it and I had an open mind about it.

Samuel: The week was great because we designed a dinosaur zoo. I liked doing the dinosaur zoo because we got to work in groups. We were learning about squared and area. We were also learning about perimeter. Our group worked on about a 4 out of 5. We were pretty focused.

Amber: It was interesting learning about area and perimeter and doing the Dino zoo!

Marcia: This week was interesting because we learnt about area and perimeter but when we did that we also got to design a dinosaur zoo.

Ocean: I like doing the Dino zoo. I like dinosaur. I learnt about perimeter. 

The Dino Zoo Investigation is an example of a "low floor, high ceiling task." Stanford Professor, Jo Boaler says that "Mathematics classrooms should be places where students work on mathematics tasks with a low entry point but a very high ceiling – so that students are constantly challenged and working at the highest and most appropriate level for them." You can read more: How students should be taught mathematics: for parents

Boaler says, 'Mathematics classrooms should be places where students: 

Develop an inquiry relationship with mathematics, approaching math with curiosity, courage, confidence & intuition. 

Talk to each other and the teachers about ideas – Why did I choose this method?

Does it work with other cases? How is the method similar or different to methods other people used? 

Work on mathematics tasks that can be solved in different ways and/or with different solutions. 

Work on mathematics tasks with a low entry point but a very high ceiling – so that students are constantly challenged and working at the highest and most appropriate level for them. 

Work on mathematics tasks that are complex, involve more than one method or area of mathematics, and that often, but not always, represent real world problems and applications. 

Are given growth mindset messages at all times, through the ways they are grouped together, the tasks they work on, the messages they hear, and the assessment and grading. 

Are assessed formatively – to inform learning – not summatively to give a rank with their peers.

Students should regularly receive diagnostic feedback on their work, instead of grades or scores.

Summative assessments are best used at the end of courses. 

Mathematics classrooms should be places where students believe: Everyone can do well in math. 

Mathematics problems can be solved with many different insights and methods. 

Mistakes are valuable, they encourage brain growth and learning. 

Mathematics will help them in their lives, not because they will see the same types of problems in the real world but because they are learning to think quantitatively and abstractly and developing in inquiry relationship with math.'