Introduction

Middle school teachers tell us that there are important practical skills and understanding that students need before they engage in the abstractions of algebra. These skills are found in the blurry area where measurement, basic geometry, and the arithmetic of decimals and fractions come together in the real world. To move forward mathematically, middle school students need hands-on experiences with measuring, using scale and proportionality, and estimating with benchmarks.

How can online resources support the need for hands-on experiences with measurement? Read on! Students can use web resources to see the quantifying components in life, to visualize mathematics concepts, and to get instant feedback on calculations. The web is a friendly place to practice computational skills with fractions, decimals, and formulas. But perhaps most importantly, the Internet can expand the realm of possible real-world problem solving. Here we feature activities, lesson plans, and projects to help students understand how measurement and mathematical problem solving are part of life.

A class measurement project can wrap together many important components of mathematics learning into a very memorable experience. Who can forget measuring their school gym to see how many pennies it could hold or finding the volume of the community swimming pool to see how many ping-pong balls it would take to fill it? A class measurement project allows students to first make choices about which tools and units to use, and then to do the measuring, use the data to find an answer, and communicate results. They apply measurement skills and concepts to solve everyday questions that can involve estimation, decimals, fractions, and proportional reasoning. A solid foundation in measurement in the middle school years enables students to think about their world in quantitative, geometric terms and see the usefulness of mathematics.

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by Judy Spicer

Judy Spicer is the mathematics education resource specialist for digital library projects at Ohio State University. She has taught mathematics in grades 9-14. Email: spicer.21@osu.edu

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Copyright November 2004 — 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.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.