My Son's 5th grade class is starting a measurements unit tomorrow. His teacher asked for parent volunteers to come help the classes measure the length of hallways inside the building. I offered to bring my gear in so they could take the measurements using their methods then we could use mine and compare. Hopefully I can plant a few seeds along the way. Wish me luck!
When my kid brought home their curriculum that taught about measurement, my head about exploded.?ÿ
An engineer should write that, not someone with a social justice liberal arts degree.
I would not setup in a school hallway while students were present, too much chance to get your legs kicked out and too much interference. Taping is all that should be done in a hallway. Using masking tape to mark break points and use tapes lengths such that a total must be added.
In a classroom or gym one can set up, which I have done. Shooting corners and ceiling and wall jogs with a laser will get you enough oohs to make your point. Show the shape of the room in the data collector, which you should explain is a computer not a cellphone, but then cellphones are pretty amazing these days. Some tape marks on walls give the students opportunities to compare with your instrument results.
Paul in PA
A cloth tape would be appropriate or one of these newer vinyl type.
Hopefully, one that is only in feet and inches as that is what they are being taught.
That sounds like a fun time for you and the students.?ÿ ???? ?ÿ
Good for you Cameron.
My adult daughter works for a city and is organizing a student job shadow day in her community. She and a school representative stopped in at a local window manufacturer who was thrilled to take on four students for a day.?ÿ They asked if the students needed any special instructions, and the reply was that they should be able to measure things.?ÿ The plant owner left for a minute and came back with two cases of pocket tapes and gave them to them and said if they needed someone to teach how to use them he would make time. Daughter was impressed. Sorry for the hijack.?ÿ
I myself have been kicking around the boy scout merit badge route. Anyone here done that??ÿ
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Myself and a couple of other folks tried to do it as an outreach initiative when I lived in AK, we never got all the pieces to fit together, and then I moved.
I have been told it is extremely rare to see a Scout accomplish. Doesn't seem overly difficult, but it's a good amount of work. Then again, I remember most of them requiring a good amount of work...which is probably why I barely sneaked in under the age limit to get Eagle.
Like most of you. 5th Grade was the worst three years of my life. 😐 ?ÿ
Hopefully, one that is only in feet and inches as that is what they are being taught.
Students need to develop an understanding of metric units and their relationships, as well as fluency in applying the metric system to real-world situations. Because some non-metric units of measure are common in particular contexts, students need to develop familiarity with multiple systems of measure, including metric and customary systems and their relationships.
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An excellent lesson would be to do a measurement, such as the length of a hall, in feet and inches, in feet and decimals, and in metric.?ÿ Then convert to the same units and compare.?ÿ They probably have calculators that can do the conversion.?ÿ This teaches that the concept of length exists independent of the scales that can be used, and also that measurements always have some uncertainty and won't agree perfectly.
Actually, they're taking their measurements in metric. I told the teacher I couldn't do that because it's unholy in my world lol.
I am going to set the robot up in some capacity because let's be honest, dragging a cloth tape around is not going to blow up the skirts of today's 5th graders one bit. Twirling my 360 prism like a baton 5' away from the gun and seeing it dance or doing a partial scan might get the desired engagement though. We'll see :beg:
Bless all of you who get involved with classroom teaching. One of the best group activities I ever did was with staircases. Angles, Pythagorean Theorem on both small and large scales, a bit of construction talk in tread and rise (also known as rise and run in algebra-speak), slope, and etc. A parent happened by and he couldn't believe the lesson.
If you can let students measure an angle not drawn on a sheet of paper with an instrument other than a protractor, you will make a great contribution to mathematics teaching.
A variation that might catch their attention would be to repeat the Smoot process, and find the length of the hallway in Jacobs or Ethans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot
Done Boy Scout Merit Badges for Engineering, Drafting, Orienteering and Surveying. My father owned a fair amount of property and taught himself surveying from the Boy Scout Merit Badge book and a plastic Handy Andy builder's transit. Then he bought a good sight compass, then a used builders transit and then a used Kegelman Brothers transit. I have the Merit Badge book he started with and the K-B transit. He used a handheld eye level for slope correction and he found that Scout wall tent poles with red and white stripes make excellent range poles. He did a fair amount of stadia measuring and he special ordered a Philadelphia rod with three targets. Most of what he did was reconn and line cutting and when he was satisfied he hired an licensed LS to map it up. There are a couple of rather old filed maps at the local courthouse with my initials in the draftsman's box. I had a good hand and had all the time at no pay to get it done. I surveyed a couple of lots in one of those subdivisions, a year ago for a long time friend and have yet to drag him out to those old corners.
Besides Boy Scouts there is a Cub Scout Engineering Pin in which I have used the tape and laser EDM inside of buildings. I have also been involved with Venture and Explorer (read boys and girls) programs. Orienteering competitions being my specialty. I have a box of handheld GPS units, and when that is not enough you might see kids running around with my L1 GPS receivers.
Paul in PA