Victoria Coburn

September 11, 2014

Cognitive Demand Assignment
For this assignment, I chose a lesson from enVision Math 5th grade. It is
Lesson 14-6 Volume. [See actual lesson from the textbook at the end of this
assignment].
Memorization:
Question 1 [an idea taken from number 1 on page 331]

Use cubes to make a model of the rectangular prism. Find the

volume by counting the number of cubes needed to make the
model.

Question 2 [an idea taken from number 7 on page 331]

Find the number of cubes needed to make the rectangular

prism. You can use unit cubes or your can count the cubes by
looking at the drawing.
Reflection: I chose these two questions for the Memorization Tasks
because they do not rely on a formula to solve the problem. All the
students need to know is one on one counting, which would have been
mastered in kindergarten.

Procedures Without Connections Tasks:

Question 1 [taken from page 332 #13]

Find the volume of the rectangular prism. Length; 8 in.,

width: 7in., height: 5 in.

Question 2: [idea taken from page 331 #11]

Find the volume of each rectangular prism.

Reflection: I chose these two examples because they involve an algorithm.

I felt question one was very specific in telling the students which numbers
were the length, width and height. The students would already know the
formula V = B x h. There would be no guessing as to which numbers to
put into the formula. The second question requires limited cognitive
demand for successful completion. With a basic background knowledge in
volume, a students could feasibly count the cubes to get a correct answer.

Procedures with Connections Tasks

Question 1 [idea taken from page 331 #9]
Explain whether each equation can be used to find the volume (V) of this
prism.

a) V = 6 x 6
b) V = (3+2) x 6
c) V = 3 x 2 x 6
d) V = 5 x 6

Question 2 [#25 from page 332]

Which of the following expressions could be used to find the volume of this
indoor fish pond? Explain your thought process for each answer choice.

Reflection: For these two problems, I had to ask myself: What is it you
have to think about in order to solve the problem? In both cases, the
questions had to do with finding volume, but it took it one step further.
The students needed to know the formula but also analyze and explain
why each of the expressions or formulas presented could find the volume
of the given geometric shapes. These tasks focus the students attention
on the use of the procedures for the purpose of developing deeper levels of
understanding the idea of volume.

Doing Mathematics Tasks:

I was not able to find any questions from pages 330-333 that requires the
complex thinking that goes into these types of tasks. To supplement the
envision text book, I found a great task on volume from a site called
Teachers Pay Teachers. Now understanding more about the Task Analysis
Guide, I realize I might have to go to other sources to supplement what the
textbook might be lacking. Given the few practice problems that there were,
not all students are ready for such a task before moving on .

Task 1
You have been hired to design three different sized cereal boxes
for your favorite cereal. You are to create the following:
A regular sized cereal box
A mini sized cereal box that is half as tall, half as wide,
and half as long as the regular sized box
A Value sized box that is three times as long as the regular
sized box
Draw a design for each box. Label the dimensions and
determine the volume of each.

Task 2 For this task, I found a practice question from the Smarter
Balance 5th grade mathematics site. [See next page]

Reflection: I chose these two tasks because they require a high level of
mathematical thinking and reasoning. The tasks the students are asked to
perform, go beyond just knowing the formula for volume and applying it.
There is no clear cut prescribed procedure for coming up with a solution.