The first week of school I dive right into content… I don’t waste days doing icebreakers, going over classroom procedures, or discussing lab safety rules (we worry about those as we go). I like to review how to set up a controlled experiment, identify variables, and measurement/metrics practice.
Here are some activities you can use to review metrics with your students:
1. Start by giving students reference points to remember. For example…
- The mass of a paperclip is roughly 1 gram.
- The mass of a pineapple is roughly 1 kilogram.
- 1 meter is roughly the distance from the ground to a door handle.
- 1 centimeter is roughly the width of your fingernail.
- A Smart water bottle is 1 liter.
- For Celsius, teach students the poem “30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cold, 0 is ice.”
4. Check out these metrics resources from The Science Spot.
6. Do your students need some triple beam balance practice? Here is a virtual balance students can practice with.
8. Ever heard of a metric olympics? Design olympic themed challenges for students where they practice measurement skills. Challenges could include a straw javelin throw, a paper plate discus, or cotton ball shot put. (If you do some google searching, you should be able to find templates for this).
10. Use anchor charts or classroom posters to keep measurement front of mind for students. You can make your own or check out some I made here.
Rock on,
