Cahokia was the largest city of the Mississippian culture, in the Mississippi River valley across from today's St. Louis. It grew quickly about 1050 CE, and around 1100 CE some 10,000 to 20,000 people may have lived there. Its people raised about 120 earthen mounds by carrying earth in baskets; the largest, Monks Mound, is about 100 feet tall. Nearby stood Woodhenge, circles of red cedar posts, some of which marked sunrise at the solstices and equinoxes. By about 1350 most people had moved away. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982. The figures on these pages come from the site, the park service and encyclopedias, rounded with "about" where sources differ.
Five pages of 4th and 5th grade math from Cahokia, each starting with a short panel that gives the facts it needs. Page 1 rounds Monks Mound's base to the nearest hundred feet, reads it on a grid at 1 square = 100 feet, and finds its perimeter and area. Page 2 compares heights from a bar picture in six stories. Page 3 fills in a table of fractions of Woodhenge's circle and their degrees, then three stories. Page 4 places events on two timelines and finds the years between them. Page 5 rounds measures to the nearest 10 and 100 and solves estimate stories. The first problem of each kind is a worked example.
Read each page's panel together first. Page 5 opens a good talk: why do two surveys of the same mound give different lengths? (Where does a mound of earth begin?) On page 3, a protractor on the shaded angle checks the answer.
Look up Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site together and find Monks Mound and Woodhenge on its map, then compare Monks Mound's height with a building you know.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
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Measurement, angles and timelines from Cahokia, the Mississippian city near today's St. Louis with its great earthen Monks Mound and its Woodhenge circle of cedar posts. Students round and draw the mound's base to scale, compare heights, find fractions and degrees of a circle, and work out years between events.
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