Magnifying Cells provides integrated math/science problem-solving activities at the museum. Students should be given the opportunity to work on these within their groups, as much as possible WITHOUT adult direction. Please caution chaperones not to do the work for the students. The process the students use is more important than the answers they write down. Provide chaperones with the Chaperone page.

Take time to review the At the Museum student pages with the students to answer questions and discuss unknown terms. Review the START HERE page to discuss the process of the MathPacks activities. Be sure to read the scientist letter together. The number and title at the top of the student museum page is the same as the number and title on the START HERE photos. Share your expectations for group work and accountability. Each person in the group should know how the measurements and the calcuations were done.

Allow students to:

• Think about and discuss solving the problem with each other.
• Develop a strategy with their group.
• Choose the appropriate tools.
• Compare their answers with other groups.
• Reflect: "How reasonable is my answer?"

Ask:
"Does it matter where you place your measuring instrument?"
"What might be reasons that groups don't all have the same answers?"

In many cases, students will be asked to do a second measurement as a check of their first. Encourage them to do this to ensure accuracy.

Group organization
Assign 3 to 4 students to each backpack. Each student should have the opportunity to work as a recorder of data (Recorder), choose appropriate materials from the backpack (Equipment Handler), and take the lead in deciding how to measure and making sure all students take measurements (Measurement Master). There are task cards in each backpack. If there are 4 in a group, one person can act as the Location Expert/Navigator to locate the spot for the activity. The task badges are for LEADERS of the tasks, students do not accomplish the task alone.

ALL students should participate in the measuring and calculating. Review these roles before your visit.

If you have other group organization roles, please use those. We suggest using one museum activity page per group, not individual pages. You can add more accountability by directing students to write all group names on the page.

For a classroom size group (24-30 students), divide the class into groups and and start them at different parts of the At the Museum pages.

Activities do not need to be done in sequence but can be done in any order. Start each group with a different task. With larger groups, schedule free exploration in another gallery while one section is working. For example:

	Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
10-10:30am	MathPacks	Explore	MathPacks	Explore
10:30-11am	Explore	MathPacks	Explore	MathPacks
11-11:30am	Lunch
11:30-12:00pm	MathPacks	Explore	MathPacks	Explore
12:30-1pm	Explore	MathPacks	Explore	MathPacks

Teachers suggest that you should have enough chaperones so that you do not need to have a group yourself. Station yourself near one of the activities to watch your students as they move through the activities.

If you have more groups than chaperones, station the chaperones at each of the exhibits and direct students to go to each chaperone to complete their activities. The chaperone can scan the area and direct student groups to the next open station. All exhibits are in the Human Body Gallery, except for the Collections microscopes, just across the "bridge" from the Human Body Gallery. One chaperone can accompany students to that station.

Review backpack contents with students.

Alignment with Minnesota Academic Math and Science Standards.