Curated OER
Making Simple Conversions
Fourth graders explore unit conversions. They create visual models of measurement units, identify tables of equivalent units and make simple conversions with in a measurement system. Students produce charts that identify units of measure...
Curated OER
Can You Measure Up?
Students use technology to visit websites where they play interactive games, gather information to complete activity sheets, and complete online projects. One lesson using 'Inch By Inch' by Leo Lionni, takes students to an interactive...
Curated OER
The Mystery of Exploration
Students comprehend the history of European exploration of North America. They are introduced to basic reasearch techniques. Students focus on four explorers who visited New York State: Verrazano, Cartier, Champlian, and Hudson. They...
Curated OER
Measure Twice, Cut Once
Elementary schoolers learn about metric units and how they are used by engineers. They learn how engineers use the units to measure mass, distance, and volume. Then, they estimate measurements of units, and compare them to actual...
Curated OER
Body Balance
Examine measurable characteristics of objects to build an understanding of the different ways you can discuss an object's size when comparing it to other objects. After whole group instruction, the class compares and organizes several...
Curated OER
How Long is a Hot Dog? Weight, Weight! Don't tell me!
Primary learners participate in activities that help them explain how different things are measured. They create their own access number chart.
Curated OER
The Measurement Web
Second graders review their knowledge of measurement by making a concept web. They write the measurement words on chart paper and discuss them. They use Kidspiration to make the web using the computer. They add new words as they proceed...
Curated OER
Volume of a Rectangular Prism
Children use the length, width, and height of an object to calculate the volume of a rectangular prism. They observe how to multiply three numbers at a time, and define volume. Pupils observe as the teacher demonstrates how to determine...
Curated OER
Area Applet
Elementary math classes calculate the area of a shape and explain the correlation between the size of the perimeter and the areas that can be contained within that perimeter. They also explain the effect the shape of the perimeter has on...
Curated OER
Measuring Temperatures
Fourth graders participate in a teacher-led discussion about temperature--hot and cold. Each group of students is assigned specific materials for their lab experiment. They record temperatures measured in their journals and then plot...
Improving Measurement and Geometry in Elementary Schools
The Sum of the Interior Angles of a Polygon
Junior geometers discover that polygons can be decomposed into triangles and that the number of triangles can be determined by a rule. Note that the Geometer’s Sketchpad® software is required to carry out all components of this...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Polygon Perimeters
What are polygons? Learners find the perimeter of various geometric figures that the teacher has drawn in chalk on the sidewalk. A worksheet to record their measurements is provided. Get your third graders outside and exploring the world...
Earth Day
Introduction To Scale Drawings
Real-life math is really great! In groups, learners measure objects in the classroom. After comparing measurements, they determine a scale and create a blueprint of the classroom. They discuss the purpose of using scale drawings in...
Curated OER
Telling Time as an Everyday Use of Numbers
How can we estimate time? Have your young mathematicians make a clock. Then they compare and contrast types of clocks. They practice writing times in two different ways and make a book about telling time.
Mathematics Assessment Project
Identifying Similar Triangles
Math whizzes work with angle sums and exterior angles to figure out the measure of other angles. This particular publication provides comprehensive support in the form of an anticipatory activity, questions designed to prompt discussion,...
Teach Engineering
Common and Natural Logarithms and Solving Equations
Log some practice with logarithms. A PowerPoint presentation provides a tutorial on the change of base formula involving natural logarithms and solving exponential equations with logarithms in the fourth installment of a seven-part...
Curated OER
Industrialization, Chemicals and Human Health - Math
Learners review the units of the metric system, and practice estimating measures before actually converting between the two systems of measurement. They participate in activities to visualize a concentration of one part per million....
Teach Engineering
Machines and Tools (Part 2)
Which pulley system will give us a whale of a good time? Teams compare the theoretical and actual mechanical advantages of different pulley systems. They then form a recommendation for how to move a whale from an aquarium back to the ocean.
National Security Agency
Classifying Triangles
Building on young mathematicians' prior knowledge of three-sided shapes, this lesson series explores the defining characteristics of different types of triangles. Starting with a shared reading of the children's book The Greedy...
University of Missouri
Money Math
Young mathematicians put their skills to the test in the real world during this four-lesson consumer math unit. Whether they are learning how compound interest can make them millionaires, calculating the cost of remodeling...
University of Nottingham
Drawing to Scale: A Garden
See how design and geometry go hand in hand. The activity asks learners to use geometry to design a backyard garden given dimensions of each feature. Scholars work with ratios and scale to develop an accurate scale drawing that includes...
Teach Engineering
Building a Barometer
Forget your local meteorologist — build your own barometer and keep track of the weather with an activity that provides directions to build a barometer out of a narrow necked bottle, a glass, and some water. Using their barometer,...
Teach Engineering
Density Column Lab - Part 2
Groups suspend objects within layers of liquids to determine the densities of different liquids and compare them to the densities of objects calculated in Part 1. The groups then carefully test their calculations by layering the...
K12 Reader
The Metric System
How did the metric system come to be, and why does the US not use it very much? Your class can learn the answers to these questions with the reading passage included here and then respond to the five related questions.