How tall is the Empire State Building? Lead your class through a collaborative estimation activity to determine the number of quarters it would take to reach the top and teach the following concepts: human capital, human resources, physical capital, and productivity.

Concepts

human capital, human resources, capital resources, estimating sums, calculator skills, multiplication, physical capital, productivity

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• The resource provides an extension idea in which learners estimate and calculate the height of another nearby building; with some changes to the other included materials, you could use one of these initially to engage your class in the lesson, and then move on to the Empire State Building
• Use this during a unit on estimation or and economics unit about capital and resources

Classroom Considerations

• You will need to purchase or borrow a copy of Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson
• Included with this resource are two presentations for interactive whiteboards; these are not essential to the lesson plan

Pros

• Cross-curricular plan brings together economics, math, and language arts
• All materials (and related answer keys) are included in the document

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.4.4 RL.4.7 RI.4.1 SL.4.1.a L.4.6 2.MD.A.3 4.OA.A.2 4.OA.A.3 4.MD.A.1 4.MD.A.2