Math Concept Reader
Park Visitors Park Visitors Math Concept Reader ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 3 1/9/07 7:29:15 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF Expedition: Antarctica by Aenea Mickelsen ca62xs_lay_061207ad_am.indd 4 1/9/07 9:09:15 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF Park Visitors by Ilse Ortabasi Math Concept Reader Copyright © Gareth Stevens, Inc. All rights reserved. Developed for Harcourt, Inc., by Gareth Stevens, Inc. This edition published by Harcourt, Inc., by agreement with Gareth Stevens, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be addressed to Permissions Department, Gareth Stevens, Inc., 330 West Olive Street, Suite 100, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212. Fax: 414-332-3567. HARCOURT and the Harcourt Logo are trademarks of Harcourt, Inc., registered in the United States of America and/or other jurisdictions. Printed in the United States of America ISBN 13: 978-0-15-360202-3 ISBN 10: 0-15-360202-3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 179 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 1 1/9/07 7:29:16 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF Chapter 1: An Internet Quest ' Mrs. Pacheco teaches in Denver, Colorado. Every year her students conduct an Internet research project. She poses a research question and instructs students to use a variety of online resources to find the answer. This year, her students are excited about conducting research on national parks in Colorado. The information the students gather will help them determine which park Mrs. Pacheco has in mind for the annual class trip. Mrs. Pacheco will offer clues to help the students figure out the answer. The students decide they need to find the number of visitors each park hosted last year. The students will compare data from three national parks in their home state: the Rocky Mountain National Park, the Mesa Verde National Park, and the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 2 1/9/07 7:29:17 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF ( Many visitors come each year to the national parks in Colorado. Mr. Kawanabe, the media specialist, is waiting for the students when they arrive in the media center this morning. The students log on to the Internet and launch the online search engine. They enter key words like “national park” and “visitors” to get a list of related Internet sites. To narrow their search further, they enter “Colorado,” “national parks,” and “visitors.” On the first Internet page is a link to Rocky Mountain National Park. “Wow, more than 3,000,000 people visited Rocky Mountain National Park last year!” says Alfonso. “That is about six times the population of Denver. I think people from all over the country and the world go there to see the beautiful mountains.” As the students continue their searches, they learn more about the national parks in Colorado. Les is surprised to learn that Great Sand Dunes National Park only became a national park in the year 2000. “This is amazing,” he says to the class. “This national park is younger than I am!” ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 3 1/9/07 7:29:19 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF ) Mesa Verde Park Year Number of Visitors 1996 633,628 1997 648,596 1998 623,510 1999 656,023 2000 471,084 2001 537,474 2002 419,662 2003 454,742 2004 474,080 2005 519,649 Mesa Verde National Park is known for its cliff dwellings. Mrs. Pacheco interrupts the class for a moment. She is ready to reveal the first clue. “The park we will visit had an average of less than 3,000,000 visitors per year during the last ten years,” she says. With that piece of information, it was clear that the class would not be visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. Raul conducts another search and locates the link to Mesa Verde National Park. He finds data that show how many people visited Mesa Verde over a ten-year period. He reads about the parkʼs special features, too. Mesa Verde has more than 4,000 known archaeological sites. Its cliff dwellings are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. The parkʼs Internet site recommends that visitors plan to spend a day or two exploring the cliff dwellings and beautiful landscapes. Mesa Verde reflects more than 700 years of history of the ancestral Pueblo people. They built homes on the steep cliffs, and reached those homes with long ladders. ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 4 1/9/07 7:29:20 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF * Number of Visitors Visitors at Mesa Verde National Park Years 700,000 400,000 350,000 450,000 500,000 550,000 600,000 650,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Mrs. Pacheco suggests that the class make a graph to show how the number of park visitors has changed over the past ten years. There are many kinds of graphs. They could make a bar graph or a circle graph, but a line graph is used to show change over time. The students can use this graph to show the number of visitors to Mesa Verde over a ten-year period. Mrs. Pacheco demonstrates how to make a line graph. She puts the years on the horizontal axis. The number of visitors goes on the vertical axis. Using the data they have found for Mesa Verde National Park, the students create a line graph. The graph shows the number of visitors for each year from 1996 through 2005. Representing the data in this way makes it easier for the students to see how the number of park visitors has changed from year to year. ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 5 1/9/07 7:29:21 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF Chapter 2: Where Will the Class Visit? Visitors enjoy building sand castles at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. + Students discover many interesting facts about the national parks as they continue their Internet searches. For example, at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, visitors are allowed to slide down the sand dunes on a piece of cardboard. They can build sand castles by the creek, or earn a Junior Park Ranger badge. This sounds like lots of fun to Marissa. She wonders whether she would like the sand dunes or the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde more. She canʼt decide. Both parks sound like fascinating places to visit. Stephen is thinking about the pictures of cliff dwellings and the tall wooden ladders. He hopes that they will go to Mesa Verde because he loves climbing and adventure. M r. Kawanabe helps Marissa and Raul find visitor data for the Great Sand Dunes Park. They record the data in a table in their math notebooks. ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 6 1/9/07 7:29:22 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF , Number of Visitors Visitors at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Years 320,000 200,000 0 220,000 240,000 260,000 280,000 300,000 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 By this time, the class has completed their research on visitor data. They have gathered visitor information for Mesa Verde National Park and the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. In their math notebooks, the students construct a line graph to show changes in the number of visitors over time. When they analyze the graphs, they discover that at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the greatest number of visitors came in 1996 and the least number of visitors came in 1997. They wonder why there would be such a difference just one year apart. Mr. Kawanabe says that would be a good research question. Perhaps they will study that another day. The data also tell them that both parks combined had fewer than 3,000,000 visitors each year over a ten-year period. The class waits for the next clue so they can discover which park they will visit this year. ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 7 1/9/07 7:29:23 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF - Number of Visitors Visitors at Two National Parks Years 700,000 100,000 0 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 656,023 419,662 312,225 232,663 Mesa Verde Great Sand Dunes Mrs. Pacheco is ready. She announces, “The class trip will be to the park that had the lesser range of numbers of people visiting over ten years.” She explains what she means. “The range is the difference between the greatest and the least numbers of visitors in each set of data.” Seth has an idea. He decides to merge the two line graphs. This way he can see the greatest and least number of visitors in each park on one graph. He thinks it will make comparing the data easier. Zack finds the points that show the greatest and least numbers of visitors on each line and writes the value next to the points on each graph in his math notebook. Together they compare the visitor data of both parks. They see right away that Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve has had fewer visitors than Mesa Verde National Park. They still need to find the range of the number of visitors in each park to find the answer to Mrs. Pachecoʼs question. ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 8 1/9/07 7:29:24 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF [...]... another park ranger, who introduces Mrs Pachecoʼs class to some of the wildlife they can see in the park As Jennifer talks about the park, Raul asks her, “Why do the park rangers count the number of visitors? ” Jennifer explains that the people who manage the park need to know how many visitors to expect each year and even month by month Knowing how many visitors have come in the past helps the park administrators... of the National Park Service With special thanks to Patrick Myers, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, National Park Service 16 ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 16 1/9/07 7:29:34 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF Think and Respond 1 Look at the graph for the numbers of visitors to Mesa Verde National Park on page 5 Which year had the greatest number of visitors? 2 The Rocky Mountain National Park had a total... National Park had a total of 3,236,142 visitors one year and 3,238,233 another year What is the difference in numbers of visitors at the park between the two years? 3 In 1997, the number of visitors to the Great Sand Dunes was 232,663 In that same year, the number of visitors to Mesa Verde National Park was 648,596 How many more people visited Mesa Verde National Park than visited Great Sand Dunes during... of visitors Similarly, the range of visitors at Mesa Verde is the difference between the greatest and least numbers in its data set Marissa compares the two graphs Seth and Zack have drawn She looks at each line and compares the point with the greatest number of visitors to the point with the least number of visitors Marissa writes an equation to find the range of visitors at Mesa Verde National Park. .. are visitors to the park, but the animals live there year round This place is the animalsʼ home Visitors need to respect the open space and its residents By now, it is late The group sings a few camp songs Then they crawl into their sleeping bags Tomorrow will be a day full of fun and adventure on the dunes! The Tiger beetle and the Sandhill crane can be found in the Great Sand Dunes National Park. .. the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve There is lots of chatter as the students talk about their trip Some students look forward to sliding down the sand dunes Others are excited about building sand castles by the creek The entire group can hardly wait to get to the park When they arrive at the entrance to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the park ranger counts how many people... surprising data, so they watch for trends in the data They donʼt depend on data from just one or two years Visitors camp in the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 12 1/9/07 7:29:29 AM DIGITAL FINAL PROOF Visitors arenʼt the only things we count here at the park, ” Jennifer says “We also count plants and animals We want to know about the variety of plant and animal... more people visited Mesa Verde National Park than visited Great Sand Dunes during 1997? 4 Pick a national or state park or monument in the state where you live Find out how many people visited that park or monument last year Write about the attractions or sites visitors might find at that park or monument ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 17 1/9/07 7:29:35 AM ... visitors have come in the past helps the park administrators estimate how many visitors will come in the future This information helps the staff prepare for the people who come to the park They need to plan for enough campsites, restrooms, hiking trails, and rangers Marissa remembers the big difference between the number of visitors in 1996 and 1997, and she asks Jennifer about it Jennifer says that... The range is 236,361 Then she writes an equation to find the range of visitors for the Great Sand Dunes 312,225 – 232,663 = 79,562 The range is 79,562 Marissa has the answer “Our trip will be to the Great Sand Dunes! The range is less for the Great Sand Dunes than for Mesa Verde.” This sign welcomes visitors to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve ca58xs_lay_070106af_kb.indd 9 1/9/07 7:29:25 AM . number of visitors each park hosted last year. The students will compare data from three national parks in their home state: the Rocky Mountain National Park, the Mesa Verde National Park, and. both parks. They see right away that Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve has had fewer visitors than Mesa Verde National Park. They still need to find the range of the number of visitors. the numbers of visitors to Mesa Verde National Park on page 5. Which year had the greatest number of visitors? 2. The Rocky Mountain National Park had a total of 3,236,142 visitors one year