Explanation: Let children explore the world around them! Link Mathematical concepts to real world scenarios whilst being fun, engaging and a great learning experience. Students are given a worksheet which has two components, an estimation box and an actual mass box. Students will have to make predictions about the mass of certain objects, then test this on a spring scale and figure out how close they were. This activity includes using items that they have in their environment. The fun of this activity is allowing students to think of whatever items they want to use (appropriately).
This can also be done in groups, to allow communication and collaboration between each-other and share assumptions about the different items.
Materials:
Dial Spring Scale
Worksheet with prompts (these problems can be discussed face-to-face)
Focus: This activity links real world situations with Mathematics, a great deal of critical thinking and problem solving is required which will give the students an opportunity to explore the various items around them and make connections with their prior knowledge of the mass of different items. Whilst introducing them to the metric unit system and how to measure items accordingly. It also can cater for two progression phases, broadening at which students can differentiate between the actual mass of the items themselves, as well as extending where the formal units are used to represent the objects.
Enabling Prompts:
Allow larger groups for discussion and collaboration, this will help the students who have a lesser understanding on the mass of certain objects.
Choose the items for specific students with easier values such as 1kg, 2kg. This makes for an easier representation for students who struggle with the larger numbers. (Make sure to explain to students the metric unit scale, as we don't want students who are measuring in kg's to think that 1kg is smaller than 10g based off the value.
Extending Prompts:
Children have to estimate and weigh the value of more than one object.
Teacher asks the students to only estimate and calculate the mass in a certain metric unit.
21st Century Skills Developed:
Critical thinking? Critical thinking is required when focusing on the mass of different objects that are relevant to children’s lives, they will analyse the question or the item they are wanting to focus on, interpret the mass based off of a real- world situation or the weight they see on the scale, then evaluate the question and place the items in the blanks according to their results or the results of other groups through discussion.
Creativity? Students will learn to be creative from the items they choose to weigh, as there is an estimation section, students might think they know the amount of mass a certain item contains. They will therefor pick that item, resulting in them being closer to the actual mass. Students will also be creative in the way they compare objects, if they know the mass of a certain object, they might take a similar feeling one and make an estimation based off that.
Communication? Talking about the items in which they have personal experience with, this can also prompt different discussions about where they have encountered the item or how they have knowledge of its mass.
Collaboration? Students who are less competent in certain areas of measurement will be able to gain insight off of people in their group with more experience, not only this but each individual will have unique experiences with different items, highlighting the value of each group member and their prior knowledge of different items.