Calculating Curiosities
“During a recent walk from the cafeteria to the playground, a Unit II third-grader’s curiosity turned into a lesson. A student asked me, ‘I wonder which way to the playground is longer…the route we take this year or the way we went last year?’” said Unit II teacher Sherri Linville. “Thus, a student-driven math lesson was created!” Armed with tape measures and colored chalk, Unit II teacher Julie Guminey’s class marked off the “old” route students took last year, while Linville’s class walked the new path. “Marking off five-foot increments, there was a lot of measuring and counting to reach a final number,” said Linville. “We found that the new path wins, in terms of distance. We calculated it was 315 feet to the playground, as opposed to last year’s 290 feet.”