An unusual and active lesson planning idea for teaching Key Stage 3 pupils about making accurate measurements, in this secondary mathematics resource.
Maths teacher Mark Dawes, at Comberton Village College, gets his Year 8 students to choose some non-standard units to measure things in and around their classroom.
After measuring the height of the door in pencil cases, the width of the whiteboard in shoes and the length of the corridor in 'Bens', the class comes to some conclusions about the bounds of accuracy that can realistically be claimed for different units of measurement.
Mark trusts his pupils to behave responsibly while they slide their classmates along the corridor to measure how long it is, and he feels this is a memorable and enjoyable lesson which tackles a difficult mathematical concept.
