DIRECTED NUMBER

Lesson 1: The Elevator Challenge

Australian Curriculum: Mathematics – Year 6
ACMNA124: Investigate everyday situations that use integers. Locate and represent these numbers on a number
line.

Lesson abstract
Students develop a strong mental model of negative integers by playing a game that involves moving an elevator up
and down in a hotel. By interpreting negative numbers as describing both a distance and a direction (below the
lobby) they will understand their ordering and be able to reason about their properties (e.g. to find distances
between them).

Mathematical purpose (for students)

There are numbers below zero.

Mathematical purpose (for teachers)

In this lesson, students develop a mental model of positive and negative integers that they can carry with them to
understand later work with negative numbers. This lesson focusses just on the ordering of negative integers and
not their ‘size’. Students will see patterns that help movement between positive and negative integers,
interpreted in the elevator context.
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

 Show that there are numbers less than zero.

 Move between positive and negative integers.
 Understand how negative numbers are arranged on the number line.

Lesson Length 90 minutes approximately

Vocabulary Encountered Lesson Materials
 Student Sheet 1 - Role Play Script (4 copies) OR Elevator Challenge
 integer
animation
 positive
 One A3 copy of Student Sheet 3 - Hotel reSolve
 negative
 Student Sheet 3 – Hotel reSolve and Student Sheet 2 – Elevator
 “negative 3”
Challenge Rules copied back-to-back (one per pair of students)
 number line
 Student Sheet 4 – Elevator Cards sides 1 and 2 copied back-to-back
(one per pair of students)
 6-sided dice (one for each pair of students)
 Plastic counters (one for each pair of students)

We value your feedback after this lesson via http://tiny.cc/lesson-feedback

Meeting Amy and Barry
Introduction to elevators
 Discuss students’ experiences with elevators and not being able to get to the correct floor.
 Teacher shows A3 version of Student Sheet 3 - Hotel reSolve.
 Watch the animation “Elevator Challenge”.
 If unable to watch the animation, read through Student Sheet 1 – Role Play Script. Choose four students to
be the actors in the play.

Teacher Notes

 The script (and animation) are an abbreviated version of the task – they only require Amy and Barry to
perform 3 deliveries each. The full version of the game that the students will play requires them to do 6
deliveries each.
 A shorter version of the game can be played by handing out only 3 task cards to each player.
 Throughout this lesson it is important to reinforce the use of the small superscript (-) symbol when writing
negative numbers (e.g. -4).

The elevator game

 Read this summary of the task to the class to consolidate what is happening:
Amy and Barry are employees at a large hotel. The manager has given them both 6 errands to run on 6
different levels of the hotel. They need to use the elevator to get up and down to complete each task.
Amy and Barry will be sharing the elevator. The person who finishes all their jobs first will be “Employee
of the Month”.
 Briefly discuss the elevator context, the hotel floors and the numbering system used.
 Why do you think the floors are labelled like this and what do the labels tell us?

Expected Student Response

 The negative sign tells you it is below the lobby and the number tells you how far you are from the lobby
(which is numbered zero). The lobby is labelled zero because it is zero distance from itself.
 If there is no negative sign in front of the number, it is a positive number and the floor will be above
ground level (unless it is zero).

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Playing the Game
 Read through the rules of the Elevator Game with the class.
 Students play the game once in pairs.

Teacher Notes

 If you have an odd number of students, you may need to make one group of three players – just add a new
character – Carlotta – to the game (now we have characters A, B and C), divide the cards evenly between
them and play using the same rules.

Discussion

 Ask for students’ responses to the game. Refer to the A3 picture of Hotel reSolve during the discussion.
 Who won the game? How did it play out?
 Was there some time in the game when you had to think hard?

Expected Student Response

 When I didn’t want the other player to win; when I had to choose between two outcomes; when I had to go
below ground level; when I was already below ground level and had to move up or down.

Discussion

 Did you have to count each level after you rolled the dice to work out where you were going to end up or
did you find a strategy to work it out in your head?

Expected Student Response

 When I was on Level -2 and rolled a 5, I knew it was 2 to go up to ground level, so then there were three
more levels to move, which took me to Level 3.

A quantum shift in the game play

 Ask the students to play the game in a different way.
 After you have played the game a few times for fun:
o Play again, but this time turn the cards over so that you can only see the Floor Numbers, not the
icons.
o Fold the diagram of the Hotel reSolve elevator in half vertically so that you can only see the Floor
Numbers and not the floor names or pictures.
o As you play, record the movements up and down of the elevator. You might want to draw this as
jumps on a number line, as a diagram, or record as a narrative, as a table of data, or in another
way.

Teacher Notes

 This is an important shift in the focus of the game, so that students will focus on the numbers, not the
pictures. We still draw on the context of the elevator and the floors of the hotel but build our growing
knowledge of directed number by just looking at the numbers.

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Developing Our Understanding
Understanding the game
 Conclude the games and introduce a class discussion on the Elevator Game.
 Share how you recorded the movement of the elevator.

Expected Student Response

 Students’ records of the elevator movement might look like any of these four - a diagram, a number sentence
(more on this later), words, or a table.

- - - -
Starting level 0 2 5 1 4 2 6

Roll 2 3 6 3 2 4 2
- - - - -
New level Up to 2 Up to 5 Down to 1 Down to 4 Up to 2 Down to 6 Up to 4

Discussion
 How did playing the game without the pictures change what you had to do?

Expected Student Response

 You still had to do the same thing but this time without looking at pictures but I could remember them
anyway.
 I needed to think more about how far I had to move; I wasn’t thinking in terms of the different levels of
the hotel anymore; I was looking more at the number values and the position of the numbers on the
number line.

Discussion
 Did you develop any strategies to help you see where the elevator moved to?

Expected Student Response

 I was able to see how far I was away from zero and then break my dice roll into two parts – the part that
took me to zero and the part that went past zero; the numbers above zero were just adding and
subtracting, butfor the numbers below zero I counted by ones to make sure.

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Inquiry question
 Imagine that you have just landed at Level -2 The Car Park. What might your dice roll have been to get
there? What level did you come from?

Expected Student Response

 I was at The Café (Level 1) and rolled a 3; I was at the Restaurant (Level 4) and rolled a 6; etc.

Extending Prompt

 What are all the possibilities for how you got to the car park? Show that you have found them all.

Expected Student Response

 If I rolled a 1 then I must have been at the gym or the kitchen. If I rolled a 2 then I was at the lobby or the
laundry. If I rolled a 3 then I came from the café or the deliveries. If I rolled a 4 then I was at the storage
or the business centre. If I rolled a 5 I could only have been at the guest rooms. If I rolled a 6 then I had to
start at the restaurant. I couldn’t have got to the car park from the spa or the pool in one roll.

Going down to car park Going up to car park

Dice Roll 6 5 4 3 2 1 x 1 2 3 4
- - - - - -
Level you came from 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Teacher Notes

 If students choose to represent their ideas in ways other than a table, ask them to explain how their
chosen method is systematic. Their method needs to show that they have considered all possibilities.
 Drawing the above table in a vertical orientation links back to the hotel and the elevator.

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Extension task
 Imagine you have just started a game. You start at the lobby. You notice that after three turns, you are
back at the lobby. What might the three rolls have been?
 When you have finished, imagine your own example. Tell your partner how many turns they have and
where they need the elevator to end up – the destination doesn’t need to be the lobby. Ask your partner to
list several different ways that they could get there and what numbers they need to roll.

Expected Student Response

 I was at the lobby. I rolled a 2 and went up to the Business Centre. Then I rolled a 3 and went down to the
gym. Then I rolled a 1 and went back to the lobby.

Teacher Notes

 It is important that students refer to the dice rolls needed not just say where they stop on their journey.
 Below are all the possible rolls for starting at the lobby and ending back at the lobby, recorded with number
sentences. Note that one of the throws has to equal the sum of the other two throws.
 The number sentences are to be read as elevator movements. For example, 0+2+1-3 = 0 describes the journey
"Start at the lobby (0), move up 2, then up 1, and then down 3. The elevator then arrives back at 0 (lobby).
The addition and subtraction indicates the direction the elevator moves.
 Students will probably not write the journeys with number sentences at this stage, nor find them all.
 Some of the roll combinations will take you below ground level.

These are all the possible combinations of dice rolls.

0+1+1-2 = 0 0+2-1-1 = 0 0+3-1-2 = 0 0+4-1-3 = 0 0+5-1-4 = 0 0+6-1-5 = 0
0-1-1+2 = 0 0-2+1+1 = 0 0-3+1+2 = 0 0-4+1+3 = 0 0-5+1+4 = 0 0-6+1+5 = 0
0+1+2-3 = 0 0+2+1-3 = 0 0+3+1-4 = 0 0+4+1-5 = 0 0+5+1-6 = 0 0+6-2-4 = 0
0-1-2+3 = 0 0-2-1+3 = 0 0-3-1+4 = 0 0-4-1+5 = 0 0-5-1+6 = 0 0-6+2+4 = 0
0+1-2+1 = 0 0+2+2-4 = 0 0+3+2-5 = 0 0+4-2-2 = 0 0+5-2-3 = 0 0+6-3-3 = 0
0-1+2-1 = 0 0-2-2+4 = 0 0-3-2+5 = 0 0-4+2+2 = 0 0-5+2+3 = 0 0-6+3+3 = 0
0+1+3-4 = 0 0+2-3+1 = 0 0+3-2-1 = 0 0+4+2-6 = 0 0+5-3-2 = 0 0+6-4-2 = 0
0-1-3+4 = 0 0-2+3-1 = 0 0-3+2+1 = 0 0-4-2+6 = 0 0-5+3+2 = 0 0-6+4+2 = 0
0+1-3+2 = 0 0+2+3-5 = 0 0+3+3-6 = 0 0+4-3-1 = 0 0+5-4-1 = 0 0+6-5-1 = 0
0-1+3-2 = 0 0-2-3+5 = 0 0-3-3+6 = 0 0-4+3+1 = 0 0-5+4+1 = 0 0-6+5+1 = 0
0+1+4-5 = 0 0+2+4-6 = 0 0+3-4+1 = 0 0+4-5+1 = 0 0+5-6+1 = 0
0-1-4+5 = 0 0-2-4+6 = 0 0-3+4-1 = 0 0-4+5-1 = 0 0-5+6-1 = 0
0+1-4+3 = 0 0+2-4+2 = 0 0+3-5+2 = 0 0+4-6+2 = 0
0-1+4-3 = 0 0-2+4-2 = 0 0-3+5-2 = 0 0-4+6-2 = 0
0+1+5-6 = 0 0+2-5+3 = 0 0+3-6+3 = 0
0-1-5+6 = 0 0-2+5-3 = 0 0-3+6-3 = 0
0+1-5+4 = 0 0+2-6+4 = 0
0-1+5-4 = 0 0-2+6-4 = 0
0+1-6+5 = 0
0-1+6-5 = 0

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Going Further with a Number Line
Playing variations of the elevator challenge game
 Place all 12 cards on the hotel at the appropriate levels. Players collect the cards when they land on a
level. Winner is player with the most cards.
 Have 3 players – Amy, Barry and Carlotta. Deal out the cards but players don’t reveal to each other what
cards they have. That way, if you don’t have the card for a level you will be uncertain which of your
opponents has it.
 Deal out a dummy hand that no-one sees so that there are some “safe” floors but you don’t know what
they are.

Formalising the number line

 Draw a number line with 21 “positions” but only fill in 7 numbers (0-6) on it.

 What numbers should be written on the empty spaces?

Expected Student Response

 -
10, -
9, -
8, -
7, -
6, -5, -
4, -
3, -
2, -
1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10

Teacher Notes

 Some students might wonder about the existence of “negative zero” and where it goes on the number line.
As it has the same value as “positive zero” it doesn’t get its own point on the line. The number -0 is the
level which is zero levels below the lobby – this is still at the lobby. -0 = 0.

Skip counting on the number line

 Count on the number line:

o start at 10 and count down by 1s.

o start at -10 and count up by 2s.
o start at 8 and count down by 3s.
o teacher (or students) decide on other starting points and skipping rules.

Teacher Notes

 Skip counting can reinforce position on the number line. It is an activity that everyone is familiar with and
provides low floor, high ceiling access.
 When they are ready, students can close their eyes and visualise the number line as they count up and
down, rather than looking at it.

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What Did We Learn?
Moving on the number line
 Draw a number line and put in the integers from -10 to 10
 Write a skip counting pattern going backwards from 20 by 2, by 3, by 6

Expected Student Response

- - - - - - - - - -
20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8 , 6, 4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20…
- - - - - - -
20, 17, 14, 11, 8, 5, 2, 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19…
- - - -
20, 14, 8, 2, 4, 10, 16, 22…

Discussion
How are negative numbers positioned on the number line? How does the example of the elevator explain this?

Expected Student Response

 From left to right on a horizontal line: -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

 The level numbers tell you how far you are from the lobby (which is zero). The negative sign tells you that
you are below ground level.

Related Ideas
 Make your own number line using:
o a long rope
o a ball of string
o a roll of paper
o cracks in the footpath or playground
o construction blocks.

 Make sure that the spaces between the integers are equal. Why is this important?

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 Role Play Script Name:

Student Sheet 1 – Role Play Sc ript

Manager (Off screen) So…you guys want to be Employee of the Month? Let’s see if you deserve it! I’m going
to give you three errands each to different floors of the hotel. The first person to complete their
errands will be the winner.
But you know the rules…You have to share the elevator. You take it in turns to move the elevator.
You will have to roll a dice to see the number of floors you can travel up or down.
So…what are you waiting for? There’s work to be done!
Amy OK Barry, you have been working here longer than me. You can roll first.
Barry (Rolls dice and gets a 1..Thinking) Hmm…I could move the elevator one floor up or one floor down.
But Amy has an errand down at the gym so I should stay away from there. Oh! And I have
something to do at the café! Yessss!
Elevator Floor one – Café!
(Music plays “Happy Birthday”; sounds of cheering; Barry hands cake over to elderly lady.)
(Amy rolls dice and gets a 2)
Amy Awesome! I got 2! That means to can go down to the gym to deliver these 100kg weights!
Elevator One below ground level – the Gymnasium!
Amy Ok! No weighting around. Your move Barry!
Barry (Barry rolls a 6; sound of clock ticking as Barry thinks) (Thinking) I have to move six floors…I have
to do an errand to the Delivery Dock but that is only four floors down…Wait!
(Speaking) I will go down to the very bottom floor and then come back up one level to the
Deliveries level!
(Sound of clown hooter or spring “boing” to show a failed option)
Elevator Rule 57a, Section 3, paragraph 2 – You can only move the elevator in one direction per move.
Rebounding is not allowed.
Barry But…but..then I can only move up from here…to floor 5!
Amy Yesss! The Spa! And this is where I have to deliver these towels.
Barry, you’re looking a little stressed! Do you need to get out here for a bit of relaxation therapy?
Barry Grrrr!
Amy OK, my turn to roll now.
(Rolls dice and gets 3)
Oh no! I cannot go up any higher! I can only move down 3 floors to…The Business Centre!
Barry Ha-ha! The Business Centre! This is where I need to take these posters!
(Barry’s turn; he rolls a 5)
Oh bad luck again! I cannot go up so I have to move down 5 floors to…
Amy The Kitchen! Ah! The sweet taste of victory!
(Amy gives bag of sugar to the chef and they celebrate)
Manager (offscreen) And Amy is our Employee of the Month!
Barry (Sadly) Ah well, life has its ups and downs. There’s always next month…
 Elevator Challenge Rules Name:

Student Sheet 2 – E levator Ch allenge Rule s

Amy and Barry are employees at “Hotel reSolve”. The manager has given them both 6 errands to run on 6 different
levels of the hotel. They need to use the elevator to get up and down to complete each task.
Amy and Barry will be sharing the elevator. The person who finishes all their jobs first will be “Employee of the
Month”.

How to Play

1. Deal out the 12 elevator floor cards. These are your 6 errands.
2. Roll a dice to see who goes first.
3. A counter (the elevator) is placed at Level 0 – The Lobby.
4. Player 1 rolls the dice and moves up or down as they choose. Whoever holds the card for that floor can discard
it. Job done!
5. Player 2 then rolls the dice and moves the elevator from the level where it is, up or down in either direction.
Once again, when the elevator stops the owner of the card for that level can discard it.
6. Continue rolling the dice, taking turns to move the elevator up or down.
7. The winner is the first player to complete all their jobs – Employee of the Month!
8. You cannot go above Level 6, below Level -6 or “bounce” the elevator off the top or bottom. This means if you
are on Level 5 and roll a 3, you must go down. Each journey can only be in one direction. You have to move the
total of your dice roll.
 Hotel reSolve Name:

Student Sheet 3 – Hotel reSo lve

 Elevator Cards
Student S heet 4 – Elevator Car ds

Print this page and the next back-to-back then cut out each card.
 Elevator Cards
Print this page and the previous back-to-back then cut out each card.

-
5 -
6 6
-
-
2 -
3 4
-1
2 1

5 4 3