Land of _____ Activity

GRADE LEVEL: Middle level

PURPOSE: To get outside the paradigm of choosing a measurement system..

KEY WORDS: Measurement

MATERIALS: 1 bucket of links or linker cubes, various items to measure

PROCEDURE:

Give each group a pile of links or linker cubes
Tell the following story with what ever adaptations are necessary. I use the name of someone who can sit in on the class. Today we are going to visit the "Land of _____" and meet Queen/King ______. She is the queen of a land which has no way to measure anything. She has called together several teams of great mathematicians to solve this problem. Your task as a team is to create a system of linear measurement using the link (or cube) as the basic unit of measurement. You may name this unit anything you choose. You must also create at least two other units that are multiples of the basic unit. They should be units that are convenient for measuring things that need to be measured in the Land of _____. When you are finished, you will be asked to present your findings to the Queen in person. You will want to convince her that your system is better than that of any other team of mathematicians in the room.
The students then work on their systems of measurement until time is up.
When the systems are presented to the Queen/King orally. As part of this presentation, they must measure things for the Queen/King using their own system. Of course, they are all so good that the Queen/King can not choose, so a written (word processed) summary must be done for the Queen/King to study at length.

ASSESSMENT: Assessment based on the oral presentation, the written summary, and the observed group work.

STANDARDS: SD State Content Standards

EXTENSIONS: The systems are used later when working with area and volume.