The mathematics of reporting is interesting and many students learn rate by trying to report their ant's speed. The units reported are bizarre. No attempt is made to correct their errors, but only to help implement their technical and mathematical plan. The purpose of the assignment is not to actually calculate the average, but to have students realize the futility of the task. They are admonished to spend no longer than fifteen minutes in the attempt and will get full credit for turning in any work they did in the attempt provided they write a paragraph explaining what the problems were that made it impossible to complete the task in the allotted time.
Students report findings the next day and it is quickly revealed as an impossible task.
The notion of uniform reporting and standard units comes up when they discuss their paragraphs and a decision is made in the future to standardize units. Metric units are agreed to because of their wide spread use and the need for conversions is eliminated. Students learn quickly why science, math and technology require standards of reporting and collecting data. One student's reported ant speed is selected at random and with appropriate fanfare is announced as the correct speed for ants. Students quickly begin defending their ants and bring up a list of reasons why no one ant can be declared the winner.