Video Supplements: Sea
Sail Away

Overview
Given the dimensions of two sailboats with different sails, students estimate which boat has a bigger sail area and then calculate the total area of the sails. When finished, they can go on the Web and virtually sail a boat through a race course.

Outcome
Students will understand how to compute the area of various shapes.

Standards Addressed — Mathematics

Grade 5
Use Measurement Techniques and Tools, Benchmark C
06. Use strategies to develop formulas for determining perimeter and area of triangles, rectangles and parallelograms, and volume of rectangular prisms.

Materials

• Sail Away student handout

• Sail Away II — Sailboats Enrichment student handout

Procedure

1. Have students work with a partner for this lesson.

2. Ask if they have ever been on a sailboat. Let them tell what they know about sailing. Talk about the fact that the wind is what makes a sailboat go and the bigger the sail, the more the wind can push it.

3. Distribute the handout and ask the students to circle which boat they believe will have a greater sail area.

4. Review the formulas for finding the area of a rectangle (length times width equals area) and the area of a triangle (1⁄2 times length times width equals area).

5. Review that the measure of area is always a square measure, so the area of the sails will be in square feet.

6. An excellent sailing activity is on the Web site for “Dragonfly TV,” pbskids.org/dragonflytv/games/game_sailing.html. Students can either use the computer to do this activity after they complete their work or at some other time as directed by the teacher.

7. Extension: A second handout is available for students who can do more difficult work. In this activity, they must find the area of two ships but the sails are trapezoids and Cat R16-shaped.

Student Handout Answers

View the Sail Away answer sheet and Sail Away II — Sailboats Enrichment answer sheet.

Evaluation