California Middle School Mathematics Concepts and Skills: Course 1

Tell students that they are going to be learning some mathematics skills that are used by the person they are about to see in a video, and ask them to watch closely and see if they can guess what those skills might be. Then show Futures Channel Movies #2002, Healing Injured Wild Animals.

After the movie ask students for their guesses, and guide them to the recognition that a wildlife veterinarian like Dr. Pokras has to treat all kinds of different animals, and so he must work with quantities, such as the animals’ weight, that are not always the same. Elicit or explain that in mathematics we call such quantities variables, and ask students to try to name some variables that a wildlife veterinarian might need to work with (e.g., amount of food needed, amount of medicine, healing times, amount of living space required). Explain to students that in this chapter they will be learning how to work with variables.