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Phase 1
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1 Opening Event
At a whole group meeting, the students shared a number of measurement
events that they remembered from the fall project.
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2 Brainstorm Ideas
Students brainstormed ideas about measurement from their own experiences.
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3 Categorize Ideas
The students discussed how to categorize their ideas and experiences.
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4 Label Categories
Students debated how to title the categories for Measurement
Topic Web 1.
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5 Share Personal Stories
The head teacher shared stories and pictures of the special wall in her
kitchen where family members recorded their heights. She asked students
to share personal stories about measurement.
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6 Illustrate Stories
Many students drew and wrote about times when they were measured or times
when they helped someone measure.
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7 Share Stories
The students shared their experience stories and grouped them by similarities.
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8 Collect Data
Students developed questionnaires and asked their peers questions such
as, "Have you been weighed at the doctor's?"
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9 Represent Findings
The students represented their findings using a pie chart.
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10 Articulate Questions
The teachers and students wondered about measurement. Students wrote or
dictated questions that they would like to investigate about measurement.
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Phase 2
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11 Group Planning
The students measured items found in the classroom. They decided they
needed to visit people in and around the school building to see how and
what they measured.
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12 Make Predictions
Before each site visit, students wrote questions for the experts and predicted
the responses. They also made a list of things they thought they would
see.
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13 Engage in Field Work*
Students collected data to answer their measurement questions. Teachers
planned field trips to the Water Survey, Illini Credit Union, ceramics
studio, Fire Service Institute, Children's Research Center, and sheep
farm. Students interviewed experts, collected artifacts, counted, made
observational field sketches, and took pictures with a digital and video
camera.*This may take weeks!
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14 Debrief
Students shared experiences and compared their findings with their predictions.
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15 Create Representations
Students represented their findings with constructions, clay models, paintings,
and graphic organizers.
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16 Share
The students shared their progress on their representations at whole group
meetings. Classmates offered suggestions for refinement.
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17 Plans for Visiting Expert
Students formulated questions about measurement and predicted what the
visiting expert might say to answer their questions.
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18 Expert Visitor
Students interviewed a mechanical engineer, a food inspector, an animal
researcher, a potter, a pilot, a seamstress, and a car owner.
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19 Debrief
Students compared experts' answers to their predictions. They made observational
drawings of the artifacts loaned by the experts. Examples include an antique
spring scale, pilot calculating equipment and sectional maps.
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20 Continue Investigation
Students did experiments related to measurement. For example, they weighed
collected items and placed them from lightest to heaviest.
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Phase 3
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21 Representations
Students made many 3-dimensional representations of measurement tools
including a coin counter, baler, coil, kiln, and sheep gate.
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22 Articulate What Children Have
Learned
The whole group discussed what they learned about measurement.
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23 Brainstorm Second Topic Web
Students listed their ideas of "What they now know" about measurement.
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24 Label and Categorize Ideas
Students formed categories of similar findings, understandings, and ideas.
Students completed their Measurement Topic
Web 2.
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25 Plan for Sharing
The teachers and students planned the culminating event together. Students
decided to make "What's Important about Measurement" murals
and display their representations. The teachers planned for students to
reflect upon their investigations and create PowerPoint
presentations.
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26 Project Highlights
Students prepared to share aspects of the project investigation by using
murals, reports, Power Point Presentations, and displays in a museum format.
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27 Imaginative Activity
Students wrote variations on the Gingerbread Boy story emphasizing measurement.They
integrated new understandings about measurement in their homophones and
poems.
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28 Display
Students contributed to the class display. Teachers showed work from all
phases to show growth in knowledge and understanding.
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29 Culmination
Parents toured the displays and heard their children share what they had
learned about measurement.
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30 Evaluation
Students and parents
reflected on the project by responding to a questionnaire. Teachers examined
students' project portfolios
to assess growth and learning.
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