Now that you are familiar with the Communication Standard and some of its aspects, we'd like you to apply it. We'll see how a third-grade teacher helped her class develop new mathematical concepts as they collected and analyzed data for a mock contest. The task was to see how many students in a given class could blow a bubble with bubble gum within 20 seconds. As they worked on the problem, the students used symbols, diagrams, and oral and written language to communicate, and this helped them develop their knowledge of ratios and fractions.

How does communication fit into this picture? Before we view the third-graders' work, consider for yourself a similar problem. As you work through the activity, think about how you might help students communicate in order to develop mathematical concepts and connections to other mathematics.

  Consider a problem