The purpose of this activity is to support students choosing unit of length that is appropriate to the level of precision needed.
Set up a scenario where the object being measured has a length ‘between’ whole centimetres.
I want to measure the length of this pencil as accurately as I can.
What does accurately mean?
Discuss the idea that if the measurement is precise enough, another person could locate the pencil you measured among a collection of them.
How can we use the marks on the ruler to measure the length of the pencil?
Students might comment that the pencil is between 14 and 15 centimetres long.
Could the little marks (millimetres) between the centimetres help us to be more accurate? What do those ‘in between’ marks mean?
Next steps
Printed from https://meaningfulmaths.nt.edu.au/mmws/nz/resource/choosing-units-length-greater-precision at 9:01pm on the 26th February 2024