Designing Aquarius
Focus
Grade Level
Focus Question
Materials
Aquarius Design
High School Geometry (mostly 9th and 10th grade)
If you could create a new Aquarius laboratory, how would you design it
using the shapes and their properties you have learned?
NC State Objective and Goal Being Addressed:
GEO.M.1: Use geometric shapes, their measures, and their properties
to describe objects.
GEO.M.3: Apply geometric methods to solve design problems.
Learner Objective(s): At the completion of this lesson, students
will be able to identify shapes in real life applications and use their
knowledge of the properties to problem solve.
Poster size paper, markers, rulers.
Audio/Visual Materials
PowerPoint, Worksheet
Teaching Time
Seat Arrangement
90 minutes.
Assign students to groups of 4 and have seats grouped by 4 so as they
enter they can easily sit in their assigned groups.
24
Learning Objectives:
Maximum Number of
Students
Key Words
Background Information
(Prior Knowledge)
Opening Activity
Learning Procedure
(Activity)
Aquarius, Shapes, Geometry, Group Work
Students will be working on shapes and their properties already in the
class. They should be able to classify shapes such as cylinders, spheres,
etc.
(10 Minutes) To begin class, students will watch a video on Aquarius so
they can see what it is and what it is about. This will bring their
attention in because it is something that many students have probably
not seen and it is a new concept. Once the video has ended, open up a
small discussion to discuss what it is about. Just enough to bring
everyone’s focus to this cool program. Fun facts to bring into play:
-It can withstand depths up to 120 feet
-Currently at 63 feet
-Weighs 81 tons
-43 x 20 x 16.5 (feet)
-Hot water, microwave, shower, toilet, fridge, AC, and computers!
-Missions last 10 days
-“Excursion line” rope navigation system
(5 Minutes) Discuss floor plan of Aquarius. What shapes are there?
Notice how compact and tight everything is. Why?
(45 Minutes) In your groups, design your own underwater laboratory
using shapes we have discussed in class. List the shapes and how you
incorporated them in your design. You need a floor plan and a side
view.
(25 Minutes) After working to finish their plans or most of it, have
Designing Aquarius
Connections to Other
Subjects
Closing Activity and
Assignment
Assessment
Other Links and
Resources
students present in their groups to the rest of the class. Once every
group has gone, have students vote for the plan they liked best. Make
sure they cannot vote for their own group. Winners get bonus points
on the next text or assessment.
This lesson connects to science in a major way. From the marine life to
the research procedures, Aquarius can fit in many different science
lessons. It is also great for history since researchers have been doing
dives for years and it is easy to write about. Overall, this fits in with a
lot of other subjects.
(5 Minutes)As a class, discuss why this underwater lab has the shape
that it does and why other buildings were built the way they were. This
will be mostly opinion based rather than factual. For homework, each
student needs to research a building that has a cool shape and write a
little blog about it. They need to include a picture, the shape, location,
what it is for, and why they think it is shaped that certain way. Does not
need to be super detailed, but show effort and understanding of the
shapes.
The final discussion will show whether students have been paying
attention. The homework allows the students to ‘marinate’ on the
subject of shapes and apply it to more real life scenarios so they can see
math outside of the classroom. This allows you to make sure everyone
clearly understands shapes.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyKAuuwOppY&feature=relmfu
Aquarius information: http://aquarius.uncw.edu/about/