Class #9--6th Grade Math

Monday, September 27, 1:00 P.M. 6th Grade Math Class. Class #9 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. It is a rainy, somewhat dreary Monday, but there is lots of excitement in Mr. Little’s math class. After spending the first ten minutes of class finishing a test, the students hear from Mr. Little about the project for the next chapter—Metric Mania! Mr. Little, who won the 2009-2010 Apgar Award for innovative teaching, teaches multiple grade levels of Middle School math and also coaches cross country, basketball, and track and field. The objective for the project is to learn to measure using the metric system and then be able to complete conversions, e.g. from meters to centimeters. Rather than have his students simply sit in their seats and hear a lecture, Mr. Little sends them off in teams to gather data in a variety of places and in a variety of ways. For example, they measured the length of the Middle School Gym and the height of the classroom door, calculated the volume of a tissue box and a soda can, and found the mass of a paper clip, a pencil…and Planet Earth! (Not kidding!). The groups then hustled back to the classroom and, in true collaborative spirit, shared their data. For homework tonight, the students will convert the measurements as specified on the Metric Mania project sheet. Given the hands-approach in class today, I am confident that Mr. Little’s students will finish the chapter with an excellent grasp of the metric system.