ATL
Critical-thinking skills: Revise understanding based on new information; Identify obstacles and challenges
In this activity we will investigate how to measure distance in terms of the human body.
1 As a class, decide on a suitable distance in your classroom or school. Make sure it is a fairly long distance that allows for multiple measurements with a 'human ruler'.
2 In pairs, choose who will be the 'human ruler' and who will be the 'measurement taker'. Now choose a part of the body that you can easily use to measure the distance such as an arm, leg or foot.
3 Measure your distance with the help of the 'measurement taker'. whose job is to ensure that the measurements are as accurate as possible, and to make a note of the measurement when it is made.
4 As a class, compare your measurements.
Discuss:
Did you choose the same part of the body to measure with? If not, team up with other groups to calculate how to convert one measurement to another, in order to compare them.
How closely did each pair's different measurements of your common distance agree?
With reference to your comparison of class results, summarize the difficulties and challenges you encountered in using the human body as a measurement standard.