Its many engaging activities and experiments are interspersed with an historical treatment of time and the instruments designed to measure it. Read and interpret various scales, including those based on number lines and maps. Students use objects shown in a movie poster for King Kong to determine how tall the ape is. Students use a map to plan an auto trip across the United States, finding the distance traveled each day and the amount of time required to drive each day's route. Determine the degree of accuracy needed in a given situation and choose units accordingly.
Students make a floor plan for a small restaurant furnished with round tables.
Understand that all measurements of continuous quantities are approximate. Students measure a given hallway in school and compare their results, noting that their results are different because any measurement is approximate. They also discuss how more precise measures may be obtained and what degree of precision is needed in this situation. Each student in a group measures the circumferences and diameters of several round objects using a tape measure or ruler and string. They compare their measurements and decide what the most accurate set of measurements is for each of the objects.