The purpose of the task is for students to compare signed numbers in a real-world context.
The purpose of this task is for students to apply their knowledge of integers in a real-world context.
The first two parts of this task ask students to interpret the meaning of signed numbers and reason based on that meaning in a context where the meaning of zero is already given by convention.
This activity lets learners participate in the process of reconstructing a phylogenetic tree and introduces them to several core bioinformatics concepts, particularly in relation to evolution. Groups of learners (at least 10) repeat a secret message (five to seven similar-sounding words) like the game "Telephone". In this version of the game, however, learners write and then code what they hear, creating a model of a phylogenetic tree and using a species distance matrix. This resource includes background information about phylogenetic trees, maximum parsimony, and matrix theory (see page 6-7 of PDF).
This task requires students to be able to reason abstractly about fraction multiplication as it would not be realistic for them to solve it using a visual fraction model. Even though the numbers are too messy to draw out an exact picture, this task still provides opportunities for students to reason about their computations to see if they make sense.