Quick Take on … Linear Measurement

Sure middle schoolers know how to measure length! But if students need a little more experience with linear measurement, here are challenging resources that put linear measurement into a practical context, or can be used for review before introducing a new measurement topic.

Big Tree: Have You Ever Seen a Tree Big Enough to Drive a Car Through?
http://www.figurethis.org/challenges/c15/challenge.htm
In this thought-provoking, discussion-generating challenge, students use common sense, given information, and their calculated tree diameters to answer the question. Teachers should investigate the links at the bottom of the web page. All activities on this site are printable.

 

Constant Dimensions
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L572
Students measure length and width of a rectangle using both standard and nonstandard units of measure. After creating a length vs. width graph, students observe an interesting and important fact — the ratio of length to width in a rectangle is constant.

 

Inclined Plane
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L278
Here is a terrific multiday lesson for teachers interested in having students apply their linear measurement skills and engage in mathematics discussions. Students use length and height data from hands-on experiments to draw conclusions. Useful teacher information is included.

 

Perimeter Explorer
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/permarea/index.html
Using this applet, students determine perimeters for irregular shapes on a grid. The applet is part of a complete lesson reinforcing students' concept of perimeter and skills for finding perimeters. Shape area can be varied and a table comparing perimeter and area can be generated.

 

Reaching New Heights
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/mathline/lessonplans/pdf/atmp/ReachingNewHeights.pdf
Measuring, collecting and interpreting data, using variables—this complete lesson has it all! Students measure height and arm span, create a scatterplot, and draw conclusions about the correlation. This lesson is an excellent way to build the foundation for the study of functions. Teacher support and information about supporting research is included.

 

Rectangle: Area, Perimeter, Length, and Width
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/users/carvell/rectperim/RectPerim.html
Using this simulation, students can instantaneously see the interplay among perimeter, area, and the rectangle dimensions. The rectangle size or shape is changed by dragging a point.

 

Brought to you by the staff at the NSDL Middle School Portal - http://msteacher.org.

Copyright September 2007 - The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Copyright September 2007 - The Ohio State University - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.