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Linear Measurement - a series of three books
A careful study of NAPLAN outcomes suggests that
many students fall down on the measurement questions. When we looked into the
issues that might be causing this consistent failure, we saw that there are
certain features of measuring length that may well not be getting the attention
that they need. For example, iteration is a process that underpins the
understanding of measuring - take a single domino and use it to measure the long
side of a book. If you can do that you are successfully using iteration
(repeated use of a single measuring unit) to find a length, and yet many
students have little if any understanding of the process. Iteration also lies at
the heart of our ability to estimate a length, by thinking in terms of a known
length such as the length of a ruler (30cm) and visually iterating with that
known length in order to form an estimate of the length of a given object.
With this in mind, we have put together a series
of three books that systematically cover the key features of linear measurement.
The books consist of activities, games, assessment ideas and IWB slide shows
that give lots of variety to the experiences of measuring:
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Book 1
introduces measurement concepts and covers the standard measurement
language such as tall, taller, tallest.
The activities focus on measuring everyday
classroom objects using informal units such a popsticks or paperclips.
The dinosaurs that features on the cover
make their appearance on a slide sequence as well as on a printable pdf
file. And there is a special 3 Snakes game that you can access from
this website. |
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Book 2 focuses
on the key areas of iteration and transitivity and then moves into an
early introduction to formal units such as cm and metre.
The clowns on the cover of this book are used
in a slide show to illustrate the concept that you need less of a longer
unit than a shorter unit - a concept that many students find puzzling at
first (longer is associated with more). |
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Book 3
formalizes the use of the standard measures, cm and metre, and introduces
estimation of lengths in both cm and metres.
The Car Race featured on the cover is
one of many practical activities in this book where the students are asked
to estimate and measure real things, with a purpose. |
Example Game from Book 1
We have put the 3 Snakes game on this site for
you to try out with your class. It is a program that sets you a task, such as
'make the red snake longer than the blue snake':
Click the arrows on the left to alter the heads
of the snakes and the arrows on the right to alter their tails. When you think
you have a picture that matches the click on the Check button for feedback. To
run the game, click on the picture above and the game will launch in a new page
for you.
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