Students play with containers of various sizes, transferring water from one container to another. They note that it takes two cups of water to fill a small milk carton. A pitcher holds three milk cartons of water, but four milk cartons overflow the pitcher. Then they find that it takes seven cups to fill the pitcher even though three milk cartons is only six cups. They decide that the smaller container gives a better idea of how much the pitcher will hold.
Students find the area of huge dinosaur footprints that they find taped to the classroom floor.
They notice that with smaller tiles, less of the footprint is uncovered, so that the smaller tiles provide a better estimate of the footprint's size. The Framework will be available at this site during Spring 1997. In time, we hope to post additional resources relating to this standard, such as grade-specific activities submitted by New Jersey teachers, and to provide a forum to discuss the Mathematics Standards.