Olympic Metrics

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Subjects Educational Technology Mathematics Arithmetic, Measurement

Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Brief Description

Students complete a work sheet in which they convert metric measurements to their U.S. equivalents. (Younger students use an online metric converter; older students use a formula to calculate the measurements.)

Objectives

Students will

• convert metric measurements to their U.S. equivalents,
• use an online conversion tool to calculate the equivalents or check their work (optional).

Keywords

estimate, decimal, metric, measurement, Olympic, skating, skiing, sports

Materials Needed

• Olympic Metrics work sheet #1 (for younger students) or Olympic Metrics work sheet #2 (for older students)
• computer with Internet access (if students will use an online conversion tool to calculate the U.S. equivalents of metric measurements)

Lesson Plan

Provide students with a copy of the appropriate Olympic Metrics work sheet. They will use the work sheet to convert the metric measurements of some Olympic events to U.S. units.

Note: This lesson can be adapted for use at different grades. For example:

• Have young students use Olympic Metrics work sheet #1 and an online metric converter to do the calculations. Among the online tools are Allmath's Metric Converter and Science Made Simple's Online Metric Converter (Length). Have very young students round off their answers to whole numbers.
• Provide older students with Olympic Metrics work sheet #2. Have them use formulas to calculate the U.S. equivalents of metric distances. An excellent formula resource is Allmath.com's U.S./Metric Conversion Tables.

Extension Activity 1: Adapt the work sheet to include a column in which students estimate the measurement prior to using the online conversion tool or completing the required calculations.
Extension Activity 2: Have students who use formulas to calculate the U.S. equivalents of metric measurements check their work using one of the online conversion tools.

Assessment

Students will correctly convert at least 8 of 10 measurements from metric to U.S. measurements.
Answer Key: (All answers have been rounded to the nearest tenth.) 1. 6.2 miles 2. 546.8 yards 3. 18.6 miles 4. 3.1 miles 5. 1.9 miles 6. 9.3 miles 7. 4.6 miles 8. 24.8 miles 9. 4,921.2 feet 10. 3,280.8 yards

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

MATHEMATICS

• GRADES K - 4
  NM.K-4.1 Mathematics as Problem Solving
  NM.K-4.5 Estimation
  NM.K-4.6 Number Sense and Numeration
  NM.K-4.10 Measurement

• GRADES 5 - 8
  NM.5-8.1 Mathematics as Problem Solving
  NM.5-8.5 Number and Number Relationships
  NM.5-8.7 Computation and Estimation
  NM.5-8.13 Measurement

• GRADES 9 - 12
  NM.9-12.1 Mathematics as Problem Solving
  NM.9-12.5 Algebra

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