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Getting To Know Ourselves Maths for levels 2-4

Teacher Notes:

The following ideas are designed to be useful as independent individual and group tasks for most children in the Level 2-4 area of the school. The activities encourage discussion and a problem solving approach. Use the ideas to prepare pupil activity sheets.

Just how much do you know about yourself and your classmates? Make yourself a data collection sheet like the one below with enough columns for the names of everyone in your group. You then may like to make a master class data sheet in the same style to place all the group data gathered and use as a class reference.

You will need some basic measuring equipment to complete your tasks. Ask your teacher to help you collect this equipment. It should be in your school.

• Bathroom Scales
• 2 X 1 metre rules
• A stop watch
• A 30 cm rule

Task One: Measuring Up

Arrange to have everyone in your group measured for height and weight.

Measuring your weight using the bathroom scales will be easy. measuring your height will be a little more difficult.

When your group has completed the task and filled ion their height and weight, have them put answers in the other three columns.

Hint: You might like to use this simple way of measuring the height of your group members.

1. Place a metre rule against a wall with one end on the floor. Tape or tack it to the wall.
2. Nor attach another metre rule immediately above the first.
3. You will now be able to stand with your back against the wall (feet together and heels against the wall) and have a friend stand on a chair and place a short ruler horizontally on your head. Your friend will now easily be able to read your height from the two metre rules.

Once all the data for your group has been collected and entered on the data collection sheet, transfer this data onto a data sheet for the whole class.

Now as a class you will need to discuss and plan how you are going to present it so it can be easily read and interpreted. The data sheet will contain a huge amount of information but it won't be very easy to read. For example, you can look at the sheet and see at a glance, who, in your class is the tallest but how quickly can you find the five lightest students in your class?

Perhaps some of this data can best be presented as a graph. But what sort of graph should you use? Should we use a line graph, a bar graph, a bar graph or perhaps a circle graph would be better?

Discuss with a partner the best type of graph to use and report back to the class giving your reasons for choosing this type of graph. If you are unsure about the different graphs you may like to ask your teacher to explain them to you and find some examples in your maths textbook.

You may like to work in pairs or threes for this activity.

Now that you have decided which types of graphs you will use, prepare a graph for each of the group sets of information you have collected. Make graphs to show…

1. the heights of students in your group
2. the weights of students in your group
3. the number of students with blue, brown and/or other coloured eyes
4. the number of students with black, brown, blonde or other coloured hair

Before you start you will need to decide how large your graph is going to be. You might wish to present the graph on a large sheet of art paper for displaying on the wall. You may find it easier to construct a small graph on squared quad or maths paper.

Discuss with your partner/s the scale you will use if you are making a bar or a line graph. This is a very important decision so think about it carefully.

Try this experiment to see how fast you and your partner can react.

1. Hold a 30cm ruler vertically by the top letting it hang down.
2. Ask your partner to hold their hand at the bottom of the ruler ready to catch the ruler between their thumb and first finger when you let it drop. Neither their thumb or finger must be touching the ruler before you drop it.
3. Tell them that when you drop the ruler, they must catch it between their thumb and first finger.
4. Measure how quickly they react by looking at just what cm on the ruler they catch it at.
5. Note this down on a piece of paper where they catch the ruler.
6. Try this five times and write them down.
7. Now pass the ruler to your partner and ask him/her to do the same with you.

You might like to record it this way.

Now both you and your partner try if again. Again write down your results.

Did either of you improve your reaction times?

Show any improvements on a line graph. Work out a suitable scale to show this information.

Now place the graphs from all the groups on a large class wall chart. Spend some time with a partner looking at the graphs and deciding what information they contain.

How did your group compare with other groups in any of the categories?

What interesting things do the graphs show.

Write a short paragraph or several sentences about the most interesting things you have learnt from the class graphs. It might be something like "There are twice as many children in our class with blue eyes than brown eyes". or "Girls have faster reaction times than boys with the ruler test".