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| Discussion
Topics for Video #1 |
Units
and the relationship between physical properties and measurable quantities
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Math Standard:
Measurement
Understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems,
and processes of measurement:
- understand both metric and
customary systems of measurement;
- understand, select, and use
units of appropriate size and type to measure angles, perimeter, surface
area, and volume.
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Units
The following questions are suggested
as discussion points on the topic of units.
- What units might be appropriate
to measure the size of a classroom? (meters)
- What units might be appropriate
to measure the size of a piece of paper? (centimeters)
- What units might be appropriate
to measure the size of a crater on the Moon? (kilometers)
- What units might be appropriate
to measure the size of a crater in a picture of the Moon? (millimeters
or possibly centimeters)
Physical Properties versus
Measurable Quantities
One typically challenging concept to
convey to students is the difference between the physical property of
interest (in our example, size of craters on the Moon) and the quantity
that a person can actually measure (in our example, the size of a crater
in a pitcture of the Moon).
The experiment asks a question. In the
case of the sample project that Marci is doing in the webcast, the question
is “How big are the craters on the Moon?” Since we are not actually on
the Moon, we cannot get out a tape measure and measure from one crater
wall to the other to see how big the crater actually is. So we take a
picture of the Moon, and measure the size of the crater on the picture.
Then we must figure out how to determine the actual size of the crater
from our measurement of size of the crater in the picture.
- What units does it make sense use
to talk about the actual physical size of the crater on the Moon?
- What units does it make sense use
to talk about the measurement of the crater in the picture of the Moon?
- Why do we have different units for
these two things if they both are talking about the same crater?
General Schedule of Events and NES Challenge Timeline
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