Product 2-Lesson Plan Critique and TEKS Alignment

             The lesson chosen to critique for this assignment was Million Dollar Project .  This lesson comes from National Educational Technology Standards for Students lesson plan site.  The lesson is appropriate for grades third through fifth.  The lesson addresses the mathematical concepts of number sense, place value and large numbers.  Technology is smoothly integrated into the math focus.  Students have the opportunity to experience the concept of one million dollars by pretending to spend the money in a themed manner.  Students use spreadsheets to total the expenses, use the Internet to research prices of potential purchases, and presentation software, such as PowerPoint, to illustrate the expenditures.  Million Dollar Project is a technology integrated lesson that takes advantage of the vast amount of information available one the Internet for price research, the natural application of using spreadsheets to total numbers, and the ability to use presentation software to graphically express the results.  The lesson is an expert blend of the three different technological applications.  Extension of the lesson is possible through class-made graphs of most popular purchases and by comparing results of one class to the results of another class.  The lesson satisfies all four strands of the TEKS, foundations, information acquisition, solving problems, and communication.  The lesson specifically meets the third grade TEKS 1 B), 2 A) through E), 3 A) and B), 4 A) and B), 6 A) through C), 7 A) through C), 9 B), 10 A) through C) and 11 A) and B).  The lesson is particularly effective and appealing because of the real-world applications.