Graphing Coordinates to Track Escaped Zoo Animals
Objective
Students will plot and identify points on a coordinate plane using ordered pairs.
Materials
- Graph paper
- Colored pencils or markers
- Rulers
- Whiteboard
- Animal stickers or drawings
Hook
Oh no! The zookeeper accidentally left all the gates open and the animals have escaped! Lucky for us, each animal is wearing a GPS tracker that gives us their exact coordinates. We need to plot their locations on our zoo map to help capture them before the giraffes eat all the cotton candy at the snack stand!
Main Activity
Students receive a list of silly escaped animals with coordinate locations like 'The dancing penguin is hiding at (3, -2)' and 'The singing elephant is splashing at (-4, 5)'. They plot each animal on their coordinate plane graph paper, marking each point with the animal's name or drawing. As they plot points, students discover that some animals have formed groups in different quadrants, like all the monkeys clustering in Quadrant II near the banana trees. Students then create their own 'animal escape report' by writing coordinates for three additional runaway animals and having a partner plot them.
Discussion Questions
- Which quadrant seems to be the most popular hiding spot for our escaped animals and why might that be?
- If we wanted to set up a trap exactly halfway between the lion at (4, 6) and the zebra at (-2, 2), what coordinates would we use?
- What pattern do you notice about the signs of coordinates in each quadrant?
- How would you give directions to a zookeeper to get from the origin to the escaped flamingo's location?
Exit Ticket
Plot the point where you would place a giant net to catch the escaped rhinoceros at coordinates (5, -3). Then write the coordinates where you think the sneaky monkey would hide if it moved 4 units left and 3 units up from (-1, 2).
Differentiation
Support: Provide pre-drawn coordinate planes with lighter grid lines and number only the first quadrant for students who need to focus on positive coordinates first.
Extension: Challenge students to create a coordinate plane treasure map where other escaped animals can be found by following coordinate clues that form geometric shapes when connected.
