Elementary Endeavors

by Mary Ann Starkey

Linking It All Together

The use of nonstandard measurement is a first step towards the understanding of measurement. Primary age youngsters need a variety of measuring experiences before they ever encounter some real measurement tools such as a ruler, tape measure and yardstick.

Our frog-jumping contest was a golden opportunity to begin some measurement explorations. We had spent one entire week researching frog facts. Did you know that there is a frog so small that it can sit on a nickel? Also, using the Internet we found that the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans has a poison dart frog display, as well as penguins, sharks and a white alligator. You can find their site at http://www.neworleans.net/Audubonsite/html/aquarium.html.

Sean's frog jumped 25 clips.

Each student had a frog for the week (a green pom-pom with wiggly eyes glued on). The launcher for the jumping contest was a large paper clip bent up like a springboard. All week long students practiced frog jumping. Finally the contest day arrived. Each student perched his frog on the launch pad and let it jump. Cries of "look at mine go" and "jump frog jump" were heard throughout the room as each frog had its turn. The students measured each jump by using regular sized paper clips as the unit of measure. Each group had lots of helpers to line up the clips and to count them.

One group had trouble counting the clips. The first lined up all the clips and then took all the clips and put them in piles of ten. They soon discovered that this frog had jumped 24 links.

This information was then recorded on a team chart. Now we had lots of raw data. I posed the question "What should we do with all of this information?" Emily suggested that we could add up each team to find out which team had the most clips. Calculators helped us with this project.

Daniel suggested that we make a graph to "see the numbers better." When we graphed out our frog jumps, it was clear that Nicole's frog had the highest score with 30 clips.

After our frog-jumping contest, a people-jumping contest seemed to be the next logical step. Instead of using paper clips as the unit of measure, we used the bucket of plastic links as the measuring unit. The students first made a prediction of how many links they thought they would jump. Most predictions were on the low side. The students quickly got in to their teams and helped each other with the lining up of links and counting of links. When all the raw data was completed several students wanted to "make a graph with all those numbers." When our graph was complete we suddenly discovered several facts. Yes, we found out the high and low jumpers but we also found out that most students jumped 33 links and that no one jumped 29 links.

Lukas and Antoinetta volunteered to make Mrs. Moyer's bed using her foot model.

I read the book How Big is a Foot? by Rolf Myller. In this book the King wants to build the Queen a bed. He has the Queen lie down and steps out the measurement. The Queen's bed should be 3 feet wide by 6 feet long (that allows her to wear her crown which she sometimes wears to bed). The King's little carpenter made the bed using his little foot as the measuring tool, Of course the bed was too small. Suddenly the carpenter realized that he needed a model of the kingšs foot. Once that was made the bed was made and they lived happily ever after. The students suggested that they wanted to make their own bed using their foot as a model. They quickly got into groups and were measuring away. At this point, our Instructional Support Teacher, Mrs. Moyer, peeked in the room wondering what we were doing. The students quickly told her about the King story. She suggested that she would like a bed made to her foot size but she couldn't stay all afternoon. The students made a model of her foot and completed her bed. Matthew brought in a model of his baby sister's foot and made a bed for his baby sister. We had beds of various sizes being made all over the room.

Kelsay found that her pencil was six inches long.

The next day Nicholas showed us his new ruler. There was much excitement over this "real" measurement tool. Emily knew that a 12 inch ruler was called a foot ruler. Suddenly several students cried out, "the kingšs foot." Then I heard a little voice say, "I wonder if that story is really true." As the rulers were handed out the students started to measure everything in sight. Daniel found that his desk is 19 inches wide. Antonietta announced that she is "3 feet and 7 inches tall." The room was buzzing with happy measurers.

The students had gone from measuring in nonstandard methods to a standard unit of measure. They had the time to explore and experiment with many methods. They are now ready to move on to a broader sense of measurement.

Reference

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