Understanding Units

Inches, Square Inches, Cubic Inches

    In high school, geometry was my nemesis too, so I completely understand how easy it is for my students to be confused when it comes to labeling answers.  We spent a lot of time early in the year learning about area and surface area.  I think this made it difficult for my class to then understand a linear unit.  When they would have to count the length of a side of a polygon draw on a grid, they would often incorrectly count the squares inside along the length.  To try to help students differentiate between linear, square, and cubic units, I broke out a set of pipe cleaners.

    Although a bit floppy, the pipe cleaners served as a good way to model the three different units of measure.  Students went around the room and found various objects to measure and the most appropriate unit with which to measure.  This activity helped students to use the correct unit of measure and led to productive math talk.  Next time, I would start a geometry unit talking about types of labels. I would set up various stations and ask students to pick the most appropriate way to measure each object: pipe cleaners, square pipe cleaners, or cubic pipe cleaners.