Our New Unit in Math

Today in math we started our new unit all about measuring. At the start of today’s lesson we predicted how many students could lay head-to-foot along the longest wall in our classroom. After brainstorming various predictions (20 students, 5 students, 30 students) we conducted the experiment. We learned that 9 1/2 students can lay head-to-foot along the longest wall in our classroom. The 1/2 represents 1/2 of a student’s body; they could only sit with their back against the wall and with their legs extended. After running the experiment we had a classroom discussion - the following items were brought up during our discussion.

- If we ran the experiment again, with different students, our total could be different. The total would change depending on how tall or short the students are. However, the total would be close to 9 ½ students (9 students, 8 students or 10 students).

- If Mrs. Merced's class in Chicago was to do the same experiment, they could get a completely different number because their longest classroom wall might be a lot longer or shorter than our wall.

- If we had the tallest students in our classroom lay head-to-foot we would get a smaller number than 9 1/2 .

- If we had the shortest students in our classroom lay head-to-foot we would get a larger number than 9 1/2.

- We decided that the best method for determining a distance is by using a standard unit of measurement such as a meter stick.  Using a standards unit of measure is consistent and the most reliable. This is why such units of measure exist.

We had a great first lesson in our new unit today!