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METEORMINER

Cut the rock. Rebuild it as a crate. Report the ore.

32 asteroids · six sectors · no timer

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Teacher's Guide: Meteor Miner

Meteor Miner is a grade 6 area game built on one idea: cutting a shape apart and moving the pieces never changes how much surface it has. Students slice an asteroid along a straight laser line, slide and turn the pieces until they form a solid rectangular cargo crate, and only then label the crate with the ore yield. The label stays locked until the pieces actually form a rectangle, so a student who already memorized "base times height" still has to show why it works. The six sectors are built to be assigned separately as a unit goes on, so the game can be handed out in the week it fits rather than all at once. No timer, no accounts, no installs — it runs in a browser on a Chromebook, tablet or phone.

The Six Sectors, and When to Assign Them

  • 1. Rubble Field — square-cornered rocks, one cut, the piece slides. Full grid, no numbers printed on the shape: the crate is answered by counting unit squares. Pairs with Illustrative Mathematics 6.1.2, or any lesson introducing area by decomposing and rearranging.
  • 2. Salvage Yard — the same idea with two and three cuts, where pieces have to stack or be turned on their side. Still counted, still no formulas. Assign with sector 1.
  • 3. Lean Fields — parallelograms. The first sector that asks for base and height, and the first with edge measurements on the pieces. IM 6.1.4–6.1.6.
  • 4. Wedge Belt — triangles, and why a triangle holds half its rectangle. IM 6.1.7–6.1.10. The grid drops to tick marks here, so lengths get added rather than counted. Seven asteroids: the last two are obtuse triangles whose height falls outside the shape, which is its own lesson and the hardest thing in the game short of the boss. On those two the base is drawn on past the corner so students can see the height land on it. Stop at asteroid 5 if your class has not met that case yet.
  • 5. Broken Fields — trapezoids, rebuilt as parallelograms and then as rectangles. IM grade 6 never gives a trapezoid formula, and neither does this sector: 6.G.A.1 asks for special quadrilaterals by decomposition, which is what these five rocks make students do.
  • 6. Motherlode — composite figures with no grid at all, finishing on a rock with a fractional area. IM 6.1.11.

What Students Practice

  • Seeing that a rearranged shape covers exactly as much space as the original
  • Counting unit squares to find the area of a shape that is not a rectangle
  • Decomposing an L, H, T or stepped figure into pieces that rebuild as one rectangle
  • Turning a parallelogram into a rectangle with the same base and the same height
  • Finding why a triangle covers half of the rectangle around it
  • Rebuilding a trapezoid as a parallelogram, then as a rectangle
  • Splitting an L-shaped or stepped figure and adding up the parts
  • Telling height apart from a slanted side — the most common area mistake. The height is drawn in on every rock where it is not one of the sides, including the ones where it lands outside the shape entirely
  • Adding the measurements of cut pieces to find a new side length, the way they would on paper

Standards Alignment

  • CCSS 6.G.A.1 Find the area of triangles, special quadrilaterals and polygons by composing them into rectangles or decomposing them into triangles and other shapes
  • CCSS 6.EE.A.2c Use formulas from geometry, such as base times height, to evaluate an expression for given values
  • CCSS 5.NF.B.4b Tile a rectangle with unit squares to find its area — the foundation this game rebuilds on
  • CCSS MP.7 Look for and make use of structure
  • Texas teachers: this is TEKS 6.8C and 6.8D. Virginia: SOL 6.7. The descriptions above match the skill regardless of which code your district uses.

Classroom Tips

  • Assign by sector, not by game: sectors 1 and 2 are a complete decompose-and-rearrange lesson on their own, and the later sectors wait until that unit reaches them
  • Use it as a center rotation: one sector is five asteroids, about 6 to 9 minutes
  • Project the first asteroid and let the class argue about where to cut before anyone touches a device — the disagreement is the lesson
  • Warm-up move: ask students to predict the crate's length and width before they cut, then check
  • Watch for students who type the slanted side times the base. From sector 4 on, the height is drawn in as a dashed teal line with its measurement, so the question to ask is "which number is the dashed one, and why is it not the side you used?"
  • Have students screenshot or copy the mission report at the end and submit it as the homework artifact
How long does a session take?

One asteroid takes 60 to 90 seconds, and a sector of five runs 6 to 9 minutes. Sectors 1 and 2 together are a 15 minute assignment. The full run of 32 asteroids is 45 to 60 minutes, which is meant to be split across the unit rather than done in one sitting. Progress saves in the browser after every asteroid, so closing the tab loses nothing.

What grade is this for?

Grade 6 is the target, matching 6.G.A.1. Sectors 1 and 2 need nothing beyond counting squares and are well within reach of grade 5, or of a grade 6 class in the first week of an area unit. Sectors 3 to 6 expect base and height. Grade 7 and 8 students who never understood where the area formulas came from often get more out of it than the intended audience.

What stops a student from just typing the answer from a formula?

The answer box is locked until the pieces on the bench form one solid rectangle with no gaps and no overlaps. Knowing the formula does not unlock it. A student who already knows the formula finishes faster, which is fair, but they still have to build the rectangle that explains it.