Chapter 16: "Building Measurement Concepts"
According to Van de Walle et al. (2014), “Measurement is one of the most useful mathematics content strands because it is an important component in everything from occupational tasks to life skills for the mathematically literate citizen” (p. 312). As an elementary student myself, I did not realize the importance of measurement concepts. I never enjoyed learning about them, so I allowed myself to be lazy in class. I said to myself, “I am never going to need to know this stuff when I’m older anyway.” Well, I was wrong. I was really wrong. As an adult, I see the error of my ways. I use measurement concepts every single day. Therefore, when I am officially a teacher, I plan to stress the real-life application of measurement concepts to my students. I never want them to hinder their learning process, because they have a similar false belief to my own. Therefore, I was inspired to share some tips about teaching measurement concepts with authentic methods. I hope you find them helpful for your students!
- Standard Units: Van de Walle et al. (2014) explained, “Measurement sense demands that students be familiar with standard measurement units, be able to make estimates in terms of these units, and meaningfully interpret measures depicted with standard units” (p. 316). That may seem daunting. But, it is vital that students conceptually understand standard units for application purposes. In order for students to build this conceptual understanding, they must be provided with explicit instruction and hands-on practice. First, familiarize your students with common standard units (Van de Walle et al., 2014). Expose them to inches, feet, liters, yards, and so on. Yet, go beyond the textbook definitions and explanations. If you show students physical examples of the standard units and physical examples of attributes they measure, they will have a real-life connection. Consequently, students will be able to make more sense of the information. Second, teach students how to select an appropriate unit for the measurement situation (Van de Walle at al., 2014). For example, you do not want students believing that they can measure the amount of water in a jug with inches. If they do not have the ability to reasonably choose a standard unit on a situation-by-situation case, students will always struggle with measurement concepts. You need to provide them with opportunities to measure physical objects, so they can practice selecting appropriate units. Third, students really need to know the relationship between units (Van de Walle et al., 2014). They need to know that twelve inches is equivalent to one foot. They need to know that three feet is equivalent to one yard. Understanding those relationships is important for students’ ability to convert measurements. As we all know, converting measurements is definitely used in real-life situations.
- Telling Time: Did you know that telling time is considered a measurement concept? It cannot be seen or felt, but time is a measurable attribute. Unfortunately, it is difficult for students to understand that one unit of time, such as five minutes, can be measured against another duration of time, such a one hour. Van de Walle et al. (2014) suggested, “As with other attributes, for students to adequately understand the attribute of time, they should make comparisons of events that have different durations” (p. 338). Therefore, students must be explicitly taught that the standard units of measurements for time are seconds, minutes, and hours. It is helpful for them to understand how long these units are in comparison to one another, as well. Students need to understand that twenty seconds goes by much quicker than two minutes. To bridge the gap between the units’ terms and their actual durations, you can instruct your students to time different tasks within their daily routines. For example, they could time brushing their teeth, riding on the school bus, eating dinner, and putting on their pajamas. When they compare the times of each completed tasks, they understand how the units’ durations compare to one another (Van de Walle et al., 2014). They understand that brushing their teeth for three minutes is much quicker than riding on the school bus for thirty minutes. They understand that eating dinner for one hour is much longer than putting their pajamas on for five minutes. If you can relate measuring time to students’ personal lives, the learning process will be more meaningful.
"5 Ways to Improve Children's Understanding of Length Measurement"
Lee and Francis (2016) stated, “Measurement comprises an important set of concepts that are fundamental for students to competently navigate and work with objects and structures within their physical environment” (p. 218). Unfortunately, consistently low performance on standardized assessments indicate that students struggle to master these concepts. The most difficult concept for them to master is length. For adults, length seems so straight forward. We grab a ruler, measure something, and move on. Yet, for students, length is a complex combination of individual concepts. They must understand the individual concepts, in order to measure length as quick as adults. There are eight concepts that students must conceptually understand, before mastering the concept of length: attribute, conservation, transitivity, equal partitioning, unit and unit iteration, accumulation of distance and additivity, origin, relationship between number and measurement (Lee & Francis, 2016). Are you feeling overwhelmed? Well, rest assured, Lee and Francis (2016) created five activities to support students’ understanding of those concepts. I chose one of the activities to share with you! You can read about the other four, if you access the full citation for this article on the resources tab.
- Three Paths: To implement the Three Paths activity, teachers must first create three non-straight paths on the classroom floor. Bright colored masking tape works best these creations. Then, students are instructed to estimate which path is the longest. Once the estimations are made, they measure each path with a nonstandard unit. The nonstandard unit can be anything that the teacher deems appropriate for his students. After the students measure each path, they order the lengths from greatest to least. This is their opportunity to check if their estimations were correct. Lastly, the students create a new path that is as long as the teacher’s longest path (Lee & Francis, 2016). This simple activity supports three measurement concept: unit and unit iteration, attribute, and transitivity. Students are taught unit and unit iteration, through the process of selecting a nonstandard unit and iterating that unit to measure the path. Lee and Francis (2016) explained, “The attribute of length can be addressed by conceptualizing that length on a non-straight path is not simply the distance between two endpoints; thus, crooked and compacted paths may be longer than spread-out paths” (p. 222). By instructing the students to measure the paths, instead of creating them side-by-side, transitivity is taught. When they compare the measurements, they must reason that path C is longer than path B and path A is longer than path C. Therefore, they conclude that path A is the longest (Lee & Francis, 2016). If you can cover three concepts in one simple activity, go for it!
Classroom Activity: Estimating Liquid Volume
By the end of third-grade, according to Common Core State Standard (2010) 3.MD.A.2, students should be able to estimate and measure liquid volume of objects. They should be able to use a beaker with a measurement scale on it, as well. Volume is a tricky concept for students. Truth be told, it is even a tricky concept for adults. It is important that students conceptually understand volume, so they can apply the concept in real-world situations. They need to know more than just the traditional formula. Unfortunately, students are typically not provided with hands-on opportunities to practice estimating and measuring the liquid volume of objects. That needs to change! With the current push for secondary students to enter the STEM field, we need to ensure that they have a strong understanding of this concept. That understanding must start in elementary school, so it can be continuously built upon. In this video, I demonstrate an activity that allows students to estimate and measure the liquid volume of different sized containers. It is the perfect hands-on opportunity to support their conceptual understanding. Your classroom may get a little wet, and your students may get really excited. It is so worth it, though!
Independent Practice: Zoo Designer
By the end of third-grade, according to Common Core State Standard (2010) 3.MD.C.7.B, students should be able to multiple the whole-number side lengths of rectangles to calculate their area. Additionally, they should be able to properly represent these calculations. It is helpful for students to calculate area, if it relates to a real-world purpose. That is why I love Zoo Designer! This online game is the perfect independent practice for third-graders learning to calculate the area of rectangles. They are responsible for building pens, so the zoo animals cannot escape. That is the real-world connection to help students understand the importance of area. The game provides them with the total area, and they drag their cursor to create a rectangle with side lengths that will produce that area. Additionally, Zoo Designer mixes in some perimeter problems. So, students can practice that previously learned skill. By alternating perimeter and area problems, the students have to play close attention to problem descriptors. Also, they practice differentiating between problems that require the perimeter formula and problems that require the area formula. When the students correctly calculate the pen’s dimensions, they receive instant feedback. The pen is shown with animals in it, which lets the students know that they succeeded. Your students, especially the animal lovers, will enjoy this game! Click on “Independent Practice” to access this resource.