Investigating, "Do Taller People Jump Further Than Shorter People?"

My Grade 2 students investigated and responded to an open-ended problem: "Do Taller People Jump Further Than Shorter People?" 

This activity gave students the opportunity to use mathematics through the lens of the scientific process. 

Question
Students were posed the following question:

Hypothesis

Using a visible thinking routine, students were asked to think of "tugs", or reasons why they support a certain side of the question. 

Hypothesis ranged from a strong yes, to a no, and even yes and no:

• Yes, taller people jump further I think because they have longer legs. -Izzy
• Yes, taller people are probably a bit stronger so they can probably jump further. - William
• It is a no and yes, because I think it depends on how strong you are and how heavy you are. I'll need to find out more before I can say yes or no. - Tony
• No, because the taller people are heavier so they drop faster so they can't jump as far. - TJ
• No, because taller people are heavier than shorter people so they won't be able to jump as far. - Aqif

Learner Profiles

As a class we discussed what Learner Profiles we should all be mindful of for a successful investigation:

• Principled - We need to be principled because if we make a jump of 120 cm, we can't say we jumped 150 cm even though no one is looking. - Dan
• Caring - We shouldn't get mad if we don't get the best jump. We should be caring to others and tell them they did a good job because they tried their best. - Kris
• Thinker - We will need to be thinkers to know how to use the measuring tape and rulers. - Ben
• Inquirer - We will need to ask questions and think for ourselves. - Theresa
• Risk-Taker - You can't be worried about making the best jump and just try your best to jump. - Antonina

Is it Fair? Experiment

Students were asked, "What would we need to follow to make sure our investigation is fair?"

• When you jump, you should measure where the top of your toe lands, not where your hand falls, or the back of your foot. - Paula
• You need to measure from zero when you use the measuring tape. - Jung Seo
• You need to stand behind the black line, not on the black line or on top of it. - James
• You shouldn't run and jump. You need to just stand and jump. - Minh Anh
• We need to take turns so we don't jump into people's area and ruin their jumps. - An Dan

Conducted an Experiment

Our mathematical focus was:

• Compare, order, and describe objects by various measurable attributes for length
• Select and use appropriate tools and units to measure length

Students carried out tests by jumping and measured the length of their jump using centimeter/meter rulers.

Analyzed the Results & Made a Conclusion

Students shared their results and some changed their position on the "Yes" and "No" continuum of our original hypothesis.

• No, Dong Jae is shorter than Nhat Anh, but he jumped further. Paula is very tall, but she made the smallest jump.
• Yes and no because Dong Jae is shorter than Nhat Anh, but if Dong Jae was gone then you can see Nhat Anh jumped further than Aqif and Dan jumped further than Minh Anh and they are both taller. There is a pattern that answers yes, but there are also patterns that answer no.

As a class we brainstormed other questions we could investigate. Students then worked in groups to come up with their own mathematical experiment. 

What's the Big Idea?

Our Big Idea in Math

"Decimals, fractions, and percentages can be represented in a number of ways that have the same value."

Investigate

Second graders investigated this question:

Prove It & Show Evidence

Weight a Minute!

This week my students continued working towards becoming "Masters of Measurement" through investigations exploring the weight of items.

One group looked at real life items that we buy in shops and identified the weight of each item using grams and kilograms and then sorted them from lightest to heaviest.

Another group completed a weight scavenger hunt by searching around the classroom for items that had a certain criteria e.g. two items that weighed together are more than 1 kilogram but less than 2 kilograms.

Another group worked on problem solving an open ended question relating to measurement. 

School to Home Challenge. Students were asked to follow up on their learning by blogging their response to the following questions:

• Imagine you had to measure the length, width and weight of a wild tiger. Which would be the hardest to measure and why? Rank the ways of measuring in order of difficulty. e.g. 1) Length - most difficult because...
• Can you find 5 items in your home that have grams and kilograms written on them?
• What was easy or tricky when you were completing the scavenger hunt?

Cooking with Maths

What's your favourite recipe? Grade 2 students were mixing in a new ingredient this week: math.

This activity gave students the opportunity to work on mathematics through baking. 

Our mathematical and social/emotional focus for the activity was: 

• I can select and use appropriate tools and units to measure capacity and weight.
• I can cooperate well with others and respect and support their groups' decisions.

Students learned the importance of using proper measuring techniques and tools. Although, there were some tools that could have been used to measure out the ingredients, groups debated on which tool was easier to pour into and measure. Would it be easier to use the beaker with 250 ml or the wider edge cup with 250 ml?

Data Collection and Reflection

We weighed and compared the differences in grams between cups of sugar and cups of flour. As well as comparing the differences in milliliters between oil and yogurt. 

By using measuring concepts learned so far, students were able to follow the directions of the recipe and taste tested the results-the verdict:

• "This was so fun!"
• "Vanilla makes everything smell so good."
• "Can we make cookies next?"
• "Following a recipe has so much math."
• "I'm going to make this with my mom at home."

Resource: Yogurt Cake Recipe