Measurement Project Reflection

For our final project, my group decided to do a unit on measurement and how it is used in various activities. More information about it can be found on this website on the page labeled "inquiry project".

This was an interesting project because it enabled us to explore a variety of topics and different types of measurement. The first thing people think of when they think of measurement is measurement of length and distance, but there is also measurement of weight, volume, time, value, and tempo. We covered a different type of measurement in each lesson plan, including things that aren't normally thought of as involving measurement.

My two lesson plans were specifically on measurement and weightlifting. I don't know much about either topic but I chose these topics so my mother and sister could help me. My mom gave me information about sewing and my sister about weightlifting. I was able to come up with good classroom activities for both. The sewing one is complex, involving many activities related to multiple strands of math including shape and space and patterns. I used the curriculum outcomes as a guide and managed to cover the process standards without even thinking about them. The weightlifting one was more difficult because the curriculum outcome about measuring mass was pretty vague. I wanted to connect measurement to an important real life activity, so I decided to focus on how people know how much weight to lift for exercise. This connects it to a real activity in the field of sports, which may be of interest to children. Coming up with hands-on activities was hard but I found a way because students remember more by doing things than just reading or listening.

I learned a lot about what goes into creating a good lesson plan. You have to think about how to introduce it in a way that peaks student's interest, how to get students actively involved in the learning process and not just passively listening, how to conclude, how to assess whether students learn what you want them to learn, and many other things to consider. I also learned a lot about what goes into a wider unit plan. You need a theme to connect everything and a goal for all lessons to share, it this case it was showing different ways measurement is used for activities that are relevant for real life. We also chose curriculum outcomes for each lesson but real life examples was the goal. We each did our own lessons in slightly different ways but collaborated to make sure a good, diverse, array of things were covered. I always like things to be well-rounded and cover a variety.

The presentation of our unit plan went very well. We each explained the lesson plans we wrote. We knew our own ideas well enough to explain them with little prompting. We were able to work off each other and be consistent. We were able to explain how the process standards fit and how different forms of technology were involved. I included pictures in one of m slides as a visual aid and pictures in other sides just for fun. We did not use either of my lessons for the in-class activities because it was difficult to get the materials, plus my sewing activities were a little complex and my weightlifting ones were a little too simple. We selected the money one with hundreds charts because it was relatively easy to implement in class and was interesting without being overly complex.

Overall, I am proud of the unit plan. I learned a lot and had fun. People seemed to enjoy it too.